Pinned
by ChrisRainicorn
Summary: Pyrrha was good at reading people. It was the result of years of combat training. In a battle, being able to predict what move an opponent is going to make just by looking at their eyes and body posture is the key to being a great warrior. So when Jaune started acting differently when it came to her, she noticed almost immediately. Cover art (and inspiration) by mrk50 on tumblr.
1. Chapter 1

**This is, like, my second fanfic ever (and it has been 4 years since my first one…** _ **cringy…**_ **), and my very first completely in english… So I hope this goes well!**

 **Aaaall of this was inspired by a fanart (which is the cover art) by mrk50 on tumblr. Check them out if you haven't already, they are just such an amazing artist and their Arkos art is the best thing ever!**

 **Just one more quick thanks, for my friend that introduced me to RWBY. I wouldn't be in this fandom and this fic would be only loose ideas in my head now (like many others that were already forgotten) if weren't for you and your motivation. 3**

 **On with the fic!**

* * *

Pyrrha was good at reading people. It was the result of years of combat training. In a battle, being able to predict what move an opponent is going to make just by looking at their eyes and body posture is the key to being a great warrior.

So when Jaune started acting differently when it came to her, she noticed almost immediately.

* * *

It started at the Vytal Festival.

Everyone at Beacon was excited about the tournament, team JNPR was no exception. They trained for weeks, and, when they won their first team match against team BRNZ, they knew their effort paid off, even if they had a little disagreement in regard of team attacks.

Nevertheless, the doubles round went off without a hitch, she and Nora were chosen to represent the team, and they were, as their friends in team RWBY described excitedly right after the battle, a dangerous combination. The agility in her attacks and defense and Nora's pure power were no match for the pair of boys from Atlas, who were quickly knocked out of the battlefield.

She wasn't surprised when Jaune approached her later that day, touched her shoulder, and asked if she was okay about going to the single rounds, saying that it was totally fine if she was feeling tired from her last matches, but of course, she accepted.

"I knew I could count on you, partner!" He smiled in that way that made her cheeks grow warm and went off to tell Ren and Nora about her decision.

The chosen participants for the single rounds gathered on the stage and waited for Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port to finish explaining the rules. Even though she was more than honored to represent team JNPR in the final rounds and was more than used to one-on-one combat, Pyrrha couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Before she always fought for herself, she was the Invincible Girl, the Pride of Sanctum. Now she had a team, she had Jaune, Ren and Nora, she was Pyrrha Nikos from JNPR and she liked it this way much more than the ones she carried over from her career in Mistral. She was going to represent her friends and Beacon, and she couldn't let them down, it was a completely new feeling.

The random selection process started, and when the faces of the two participants appeared on the big screen, Yang and some student from Haven she didn't recognize, she let go of a breath she didn't notice she was holding.

Since it was one of her friends that was going to fight, Pyrrha decided to watch the match from the backstage the remaining competitors had access to. The round was intense, and when Yang won the battle, surprising her smug opponent with her fiery semblance, Pyrrha waited for her to come back to the backstage to congratulate her and they went together to find their teams.

Alone in the JNPR dorm room and with all of the excitement for Yang's victory gone, the nervousness returned. But before she could think more about the matter, the silence of the empty room was broken when Nora busted through the door, in workout clothes with Ren right behind her, with that pink apron that said _Please do nothing to the cook_ that his partner got him from his birthday.

They were saying something about no more moping around and extra exercise routines and green smoothies with an amazing nutritional value and the benefits it had in your body until Jaune came in and noticed she was kind of overwhelmed with all of the sudden attention and suggested them to take some fresh air.

They went to explore the fairgrounds together, but as soon as she had an opportunity, she separated from the group to find a calm spot to think. The chilly autumn air was relaxing, but her worries were still there. She knew it was a bit silly, her friends would not be mad at her if something happened and she lost a match, but she didn't want to disappoint them. For the first time in a tournament, she really had something to fight for.

Jaune found her sitting outside the dining hall, leaning against the wall.

"Hey" She looked up to him. He was smiling, with a cotton candy cane on his hands. "It's no green goop, but I think it still might do some good."

She accepted the treat, giving a small smile of her own back and thanked her friend. He sat beside her.

"I, hum... Noticed you seemed a little down. Is there something on your mind?"

She didn't want to tell him the truth, the idiot would probably think it was his fault; since he was the one who asked her to participate in the finals.

"It's nothing, Jaune, really." Pyrrha answered instead, looking away. However, she didn't sound convinced enough, and she knew that, because he continued.

"You were the first person to ever believe in me, you know that?" She looked back at him when he laughed weakly. "Even when I told my parents I was going to Beacon, they told me not to worry if I ended up having to move back home. How depressing is that?"

"I'm sure they didn't mean-" She began, but stopped mid-sentence, gasping and letting the cotton candy fall from her grasp when Jaune placed his hand over hers.

"I guess... I'm just trying to say that... you've always been there for me... even when I didn't deserve it. And I can tell there's something on your mind, so... I don't know. How can I help?"

Her shock only lasted one second before she smiled. "You're already doing it." She said as she closed her eyes and leaned her head on Jaune's shoulder, feeling him stiff for a moment before relaxing.

They stayed like that until the sun went down, talking, and while their conversation went on, Pyrrha could feel her worries melt away. How could she overthink this so much? Her friends would be by her side no matter what, Jaune would be at her side no matter what. Deep down she already knew that, but she let her anxieties take over. Yes, she didn't want to disappoint her team. Yes, she had something to fight for, and that's why she would do her best.

They talked about random things, like how many stuffed toys Nora would bring to their dorm today, what's going to be on the menu for breakfast tomorrow; how was it possible for a person to drink so much coffee like Doctor Oobleck and survive, why Professor Peach was never around much, and how they should get going or they were going to miss dinner. He got up first and offered a hand to help her up, she accepted it, and when he let go, she could feel a slight hesitation on his part.

She didn't want him to let go either.

* * *

The tournament continued. The single rounds always started with eight competitors, so to get to the real finals, the participant had to win the last three matches in a row.

Pyrrha stood in the stage again waiting for the random selection process to pick two of the remaining students for this next round of the quarterfinals, now feeling way more confident than the last time. So when her picture popped up in the big screen, she just got in her place in the field, faced her opponent, adjusted her posture and waited for the countdown for the battle to begin.

 _"Let's do this!"_

She made it to the finals. The quarterfinals and semifinals went off smoothly, the opponents she faced gave her some good matches, but she managed to come out victorious in both of them. However, now she was about to face one of her toughest battles yet.

"Just because we're friends doesn't mean I'll go easy on you, Cereal Girl." Yang Xiao Long joked as she cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders.

Pyrrha rolled her eyes to the nickname as she got into battle stance. "That's the last thing I expect you to do."

It wasn't uncommon for two students from the same school to compete against each other in the finals, and it was even less surprising that, when it happens, both of them were from Beacon, since it was basically common knowledge that the school was considered the best huntsman academy in all of Remnant.

As Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port introduced them both to the crowd and the stage rose, she and Yang were already in position, anticipating the moment where the battle would begin.

Pyrrha knew this battle would be everything but easy, but she had a strategy. She saw every match that Yang fought, and she noticed the obvious pattern: she used her semblance to win every single one. So all she had to do was last until the rush of extra power given by Yang's semblance faded, and then give everything she got afterward. But it was easier said than done, Yang was probably the definition of strength, the probability of surviving one of her all-out attacks was almost zero, and during all year studying together, she never saw someone achieve such a feat.

 _"There's a first time for everything."_ She thought as the countdown started.

"The final match from this year Vytal Festival starts now!" Doctor Oobleck shouted "Three! Two! One! Begin!"

In the blink of an eye, the two were engaged in a series of attacks that was probably hard for the audience to keep up. Pyrrha knew she needed to go offensive in the beginning to get Yang tired out enough for her to activate her semblance, but she also needed to conserve her aura levels for it to last until after this moment arrived − it was a double-edged sword.

Finally, after dodging a fiery punch, she noticed an opening in Yang's defense. She took the opportunity and landed a kick that sent the girl flying, dropping her aura into the orange zone, the audience gasped excitedly, and when Yang started to rise again slowly, she knew it was coming. But, different from most of the opponents the brawler faced, she was ready for it.

" _It's now or never."_

Pyrrha got into a solid defensive stance as Yang screamed and the floor around her caught on fire, red eyes met her own as the blonde approached with incredible speed, fists raised for a deadly punch. The attack connected with Pyrrha's shield, creating a sound probably heard by people all the way down to downtown Vale, and even if it was a successful block, the sheer force of the punch sent her sliding back. She rolled to the side, dodging multiple shots from Ember Celica and feeling her aura absorb the damage from the ones she wasn't able to avoid, making it drop into the orange zone, tied with Yang's own. She knew that the first one of them to get a full hit now would win the match. Moving Akoúo̱ to block a kick from the blonde, she pushed the shield forward, making Yang stumble for a second before the girl quickly recomposed and continued her assault, with a punch Pyrrha recognized as the one she used to finish many of her past opponents. With a subtle flick of her own semblance over Yang's gauntlets, Pyrrha modified the trajectory of the attack by millimeters, giving her a chance to dodge the blow that would be fatal.

Yang wasn't expecting to miss, her mouth opened in a silent gasp as Pyrrha moved to the side, noticing that in that exact moment the red from the girl's eyes, wide from surprise, were being replaced with its usual lilac tone.

 _"This is it!"_

Positioning herself behind Yang, Pyrrha tightened her grip on Miló and landed the final blow. The aura around the blonde's body sparkled and finally dropped to the red in the screens around the stadium. The buzzer indicating the end of the match sounded and the audience erupted in cheers.

"Pyrrha Nikos wins! She's the winner of this year Vytal Festival"

The noise around the Coliseum was deafening as the stage lowered to its original place. Pyrrha tried to steady her breathing as the adrenaline from the battle faded. Placing Miló and Akoúo̱ on the usual place on her back, she jogged to Yang and offered her a hand.

"Nice job, Cereal Girl." Yang said as she rose to her feet. With a serious expression, she continued. "But it won't stay like this, I want a rematch soon." She winked and squeezed her hand a little bit too tight before letting go and turning around to leave the stage.

The cheers from the crowd were still going, but one corner of the stadium that was louder than the rest. Nora was basically a pink blur, she was alternating between screaming, jumping in place, running around and shaking Ren. Ren, when not being shaken by his hyperactive partner, was clapping enthusiastically and smiling the widest smile Pyrrha ever saw on the boy's face. And Jaune… Where was Jaune? She looked around in the stands for him, but all she could see was his empty seat beside Nora. She lowered her gaze, finally noticing a white dot running in her direction, she squinted her eyes to try to see better with all the lights from the stadium reflecting in the white from the person armor. Her eyes focused enough for her to be able to realize that it was Jaune and that he probably broke a few rules jumping over the wall that separated the stands from the battle arena, but that was the last thing on her mind when his arms came around her in a crushing hug.

"You did it! You did it!" He laughed on her shoulder.

She gasped with surprise, her heart was back at beating fast and face heating up like she was still in the middle of a battle. The last time he was this close to her was probably at the dance, before the Festival, it looked like it happened longer ago than it really did. It took a few seconds for her to realize that her arms were still raised in an awkward position, she finally dropped them on Jaune's shoulder, closed her eyes and laughed with him. "I did it!"

Neither of them made a move to let go. So when she noticed that they were still in the middle of the arena, with confetti falling around them, and probably making a scene hugging for this long, she blushed and started to move. But an extra pair of arms around them and a hand on her shoulder stopped her on her tracks before she was able to move away.

"YEAH! GO TEAM JNPR!" Nora shouted so loud that made her and Jaune flinch.

"Congratulations, Pyrrha!" Ren said in a more acceptable volume.

Pyrrha moved her arms so she could embrace her other two teammates. "Thank you so much! But I wouldn't be here if weren't for you guys!"

She blinked rapidly to get rid of a few tears that were starting to appear in her eyes, she wasn't used to this. Yes, she had won countless tournaments in the past, but she always got out of them with no more than a handshake from the organizers and a pleased smile on her sponsors' faces. It was a little better when her mother was able to be present and, of course, there was the material prize, like medals, trophies or money, but all of that got nothing on the attention she was getting from her team at this moment.

When they separated from their group hug, Jaune grabbed her hands and started to lead the way away from the field. "C'mon, we got some commemoration to do!"

He let go of her hands when she followed him, but he stayed by her side, so close that she had to resist the urge to link their arms.

And after that day, the signs began.

* * *

The Beacon students were awarded an extended weekend after the Vytal Festival, to rest after the battles and commemorate the school victory.

During these days, Pyrrha had to endure being the school celebrity again. When she got into Beacon, people who recognized her from her wins in numerous tournaments, or even because of Pumpkin Pete's cereal boxes, were always sending glances in her direction, and some would even ask for her autograph, there were people who admired her and people who had more negative opinions towards her, but it was undeniable that she was well known among the students.

All this fuzz about her quieted down as the year went on, but with her victory at the Vytal Festival, she was topic of conversation all around the campus again.

Some talks she heard flattered her, some were less kind, but she was used to it, but one new topic in particular made her a little bit more nervous.

She and Jaune were at the library, classes were starting tomorrow and some teachers already asked for a list of books for the next lesson. The place was more crowded than usual for this reason, so while they waited in line to check out the books, a conversation caught her attention.

"There they are." Someone looking through a shelf located behind them whispered, probably thinking that she couldn't hear.

"Oh!" Another person answered, in the same rushed whisper tone. "Do you really think, they are, like, together?"

"How wouldn't they be?" The other one raised the volume of their voice a little bit, just to realize the mistake and get back to the murmuring. "He literally jumped in the middle of the arena and hugged her for, like, half hour!" The two snickered.

"Well, they are cute together…"

The two walked away so she couldn't hear the conversation anymore. Jaune was right in front of her in the line; she blushed when she realized that he probably heard everything too.

He was shifting his weight between his feet, looking out at the window; his eyes were wandering like he was searching something to pay attention to, fidgeting with the cover of a book in his arms.

 _"Oh, he totally did."_

* * *

When classes started again, they came back with full force. There were only a few weeks left before the final exams began, and then, it was time for the winter break, Pyrrha almost couldn't believe that she was already finishing her first year in a huntsman academy.

After the "incident" in the library, Pyrrha was afraid of the possibility that Jaune would start acting differently around her, or worse, start avoiding her, and with their busy schedule, it wouldn't be hard to do so.

But it didn't happen.

It was quite the opposite actually.

He was closer.

A random person watching them probably wouldn't notice since they had always been close; he was her best friend, and the person you spend most of your time within a huntsman academy is usually your partner. But the signs were there.

He started walking closer to her than normal, the back of their hands brushing so often that she was almost getting used to the feeling of electricity running through her body when it happened. Sometimes, she could feel his fingers twitch, as if he wanted to take her hand, but he never did. At those times he would just withdraw his hand to scratch the back of his neck and continue to walk and talk about whatever subject was the topic of their conversation, like nothing ever happened.

Other times, usually when they had to go through a door, he would let her go in first, and she could feel his hand hovering protectively behind her back. Once, when they were heading to their dorms, she stopped abruptly in the doorframe " _just to check"_. His hand came in contact with her back, and he moved it away so fast that it looked like he touched burning coal. He just rushed past her, babbling about being tired from all the classes they had that day, and jumped on his bed. Nora, who was already in the room, sitting on her own bed, working on her homework while listening to music, sent a quizzical look to their leader and then to her. Pyrrha just shrugged her shoulders, containing the blush and the smirk that wanted to appear on her face.

Now Jaune always sat by her side in every class. Teams sat together for the lectures when they could, but it's not always that there are four, or even two vacant seats next to each other when they got to the classroom a little late.

But now, he made sure the team was never late for any class, with the excuse of working hard for the approaching finals, but she knew he had another motive too.

Pyrrha always did her best to pay attention to class, and Jaune knew that, so they didn't talk much during it, but she appreciated the company, and she could tell that he did too.

It was nice.

And she also liked when their shoulders or knees would touch and he didn't make an effort to move away.

* * *

He stopped completely flirting with Weiss.

Besides getting late to class, other times that the team did not sit together was when Nora wanted to sit in the back to take a nap, or when Jaune sat with Weiss to try to ask the girl on a date.

He would also make sure to sit as close to Weiss as possible in the lunchtime, leave the dorm to go to classes at the same time as team RWBY so he could bump into her, wait for her outside the classroom until she left; always dropping some lame pickup line or invitation for a date or study section, anything to impress the girl.

And every time, he got rejected or ignored completely.

All this blunt flirting actually toned down after the dance, but you could still notice his eyes following the girl around the room sometimes, like he was wondering what could have been.

And then it stopped.

They were in the locker room, putting away their gear after the weapon management class and picking up the books for Oobleck's lecture. Team RWBY was in a corner taking care of their own materials and Ren and Nora had just left ahead to try to save some seats for the four of them.

Pyrrha placed Miló and Akoúo̱ safely on her locker and closed the door.

"I just can't understand why he asked us three books… For one single class!" Jaune complained as he slammed his own locker door with his shoulder and adjusted the weight of the books on his arms.

"Well… he can explain the subject really fast…" Pyrrha said in the middle of a chuckle. Jaune just groaned in response.

She went to grab her books that she left on the wooden bench beside her locker, but stopped when she noticed the title of the one in the top of the pile, _The Grimm Encyclopedia_.

"Oh, I grabbed one of Professor Port's books by mistake." She turned to him. "You can go ahead if you want, I'll just get the right one."

"No, I'll wait for you." She smiled at his words and grabbed her scroll to unlock the door once again.

That right there was something he always did now - wait for her; it was like he was taking every chance to spend time with her, and every time he made the decision to stay, it never failed to make her heart flutter.

A voice crossed the room, interrupting her thoughts. "C'mon Ruby, let's go or we are going to be late." She heard Weiss talking to her partner a few meters down the hall, the annoyance clear in her voice.

"Just ooone second… Aaand… Done!" Ruby answered, sounding unfazed by the tone of Weiss' complains.

The two girls passed behind her to leave the room while she exchanged the _Encyclopedia_ for _History of Vale_ , and Pyrrha glanced over her shoulder.

If this moment were happening a few weeks ago, she would be able to tell exactly what would occur next: Jaune would see Weiss leaving, he would blurt an excuse to Pyrrha saying that he needed to go, then run out of the room after the girl, trying one of his small talks, and being ignored for the most part, all the way hoping to find an empty seat next to her in class.

But the scene she witnessed now was way different.

Jaune was leaning against his locker, books still on his hands as Weiss and Ruby walked past him. And this time, his eyes didn't follow the girl in white.

She was completely ignored, because they were totally focused on something else.

They were on her.

Pyrrha was used to people staring at her, but the soft look on his eyes, the slight blush on his cheeks and the fact that Jaune had just basically chosen her over his crush, _former crush_ , made her own face heat up.

But before he could notice that _she_ noticed, in one quick movement, she grabbed the other two books in the bench and turned to her partner. Their eyes met, he jumped a little as he was caught staring and lowered his gaze to the now unstable pile of books on his arms, trying to hide the now more obvious flush on his checks.

She bit her lip to contain a giggle from escaping, walked to him and bumped her shoulder on his playfully. "Let's go see if Ren and Nora managed to save us a seat."

"Hum... Yeah! Go! Right." He sped up to catch up to her.

And then he tripped in one of the wooden benches.

Pyrrha just rolled her eyes.

* * *

The next couple of weeks were a blur.

Tests, exams and assignments were everywhere, the library was always full, the canteen never sold so much coffee.

Then after a lot of studying, struggling and stress, it was finally over.

All of team JNPR did well in their final exams. Ren had straight A's all over his bulletin, Nora managed to get her good grades in the more theoretical subjects, even if she spent more time sleeping over her books than reading them, and she was proud at how far Jaune had come in his combat classes.

And now they had time to breathe, with one month of winter break ahead of them.

The students were agitated, people were excited to go back home to see their families, like Ruby and Yang, or talking about trips they were going to make, like Weiss, or just appreciating the peace they would have in the coming weeks, like Blake.

JNPR had their plans too. Jaune would go back to his hometown, Ren and Nora would stay at Beacon, even after an invitation from their leader to spend the break on his house, and Pyrrha would spend her month in Mistral, as requested by her mother.

She was looking forward to seeing her home after so long, but she knew she was going to miss Vale during the break.

It was Saturday, and it was the last day the team would be all in the same place for the next month, the airship to take her to the Vale airport would be at Beacon by the sunrise next day, and Jaune would leave soon later, in the afternoon, so they planned the whole day of activities together.

It started with Ren's extra special pancakes for breakfast and ended with a movie marathon as the sun set. During the day, they recalled all the adventures and crazy moments they had, and everyone agreed when she mentioned that she couldn't believe that a whole year had passed already.

When night arrived, she excused herself from their gathering to go back to their dorm, she still needed to finish packing some things and sleep earlier to survive waking up before 5 a.m. tomorrow.

Nora gave her a crushing hug.

"I'm gonna miss you sooo much!" She wailed, her arms around Pyrrha's waist.

Pyrrha patted the smaller girl's head. "Come on Nora, it's just one little month."

"DUH! A lot can happen in ' _just one little month_ '" Nora quoted. "You could find new friends and replace us!"

Pyrrha just laughed at the silliness of her friend. Nora stuck her tongue out to her in response and let go of the hug.

"Nora, Pyrrha won't _replace us_ " Ren placed a hand on each girl's shoulder. "I hope you have a safe trip."

"Thank you, Ren." She smiled.

"Yeah! And how could she replace us?" Jaune approached. "We are, like, the best around!"

She patted her chin. "Are you sure about that?" Pyrrha joked, raising an eyebrow.

Jaune pretended to be hurt by her words, making a distressed expression and putting a hand over his heart. "How could you..."

"And YOU, mister!" Nora suddenly interrupted, pointing a finger right on Jaune's face. "You're going to be away the whole month too!"

Now it was time for their leader to be a victim of a Nora Hug™.

"I'm gonna miss you sooo much!" She repeated, but after one second, her expression turned serious. "But you're going to be closer… So if you even think of replacing us, Magnhild will find you." The hug turned more into a death grip than a display of affection.

Jaune squeaked an "O-ok!" While Ren tried to make Nora not injure their friend's internal organs.

Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculous scene in from of her.

Jaune's eyes met hers, and he gave her an awkward smile and wave, while being freed from their teammate's hug.

It looked like all the goodbyes had been given.

She went to their room, finished packing her bags, leaving a change of clothes ready for tomorrow and went to bed.

She fell asleep with the image of her friends in her mind, and how she was going to miss them.

* * *

The morning, if you even could call 4:30 a.m. _morning_ , came too soon.

Pyrrha tuned off her alarm as fast as she could, not wanting to disturb her sleeping teammates. She quietly folded her sheets and placed them and her pillow together with the rest of her bags.

Grabbing her clothes and the backpack where she placed her toiletries, she went to the bathrooms to get ready.

She almost regretted booking her flight so early when she stepped out of their heated room and into the chilly and dark corridor, but she made herself move forward.

After taking a hot shower that took a lot of courage to get in and a lot of self-control to get out, putting her warm clothes and brushing her hair and teeth, she was ready to leave.

All she had to do now was to get the rest of her bags back in the dorm. She wasn't feeling hungry at the moment, so she would have her breakfast that was already packed in her backpack, later in the morning.

She was surprised to find all of her bags already outside the dorm room, and Jaune next to them, completely dressed in winter clothes, waiting for her.

"Hey." He whispered. "I thought you maybe could use some help? I think I got all of your stuff, is there something missing?" He pointed at the lugged in the floor.

"Yes. I mean, no! That's all of it." She answered after the initial surprise caused by his sweet act. "You didn't need to do this for me. It's really early. You should be resting for your trip."

"Don't be silly, Pyrrha, that's what partners are for."

 _Of course, partners._

"Let's go then? Or do you need to do something else?"

"I'm all ready, let's go."

She bent to get her bags, Jaune did the same, their hands touched, and their foreheads collided.

"Ouch!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't worry, its fine." He chuckled.

She looked up, their eyes met, and suddenly, it wasn't so cold anymore.

He held her gaze for longer than necessary, the corridor was dark but she could distinguish every speck of blue in his eyes, their noses were millimeters apart, she could feel his breath over her own, he was so close…

"C'mon, let's go or you're going to be late." He picked up her bag, without incidents this time, and stood up.

Pyrrha almost let out a sigh of frustration, she grabbed her pillow and adjusted her backpack on her shoulders and followed Jaune out of the building.

They waited in silence for the airship to arrive, it was an awkward silence and Pyrrha didn't like it. It was cold, and after being used to him standing so close to her these past months, the small distance he put between them seemed like miles.

Before she could think of something to say, the ship pointed in the horizon.

"Well, there it is."

"Yeah…" He agreed.

As the ship landed, she grabbed her bag, her pillow fit between the handles, and turned to her partner.

"I guess I'll see you next month." She gave him a small smile. "Goodbye Jaune."

She turned to leave, but a hand on her wrist stopped her on her tracks.

"Pyrrha, wait!"

Her heart skipped a beat. She turned back to him.

"I, hum…" He struggled to get his words out. "Please get in touch with us when you get home." He started. "Oh! And don't forget to eat your breakfast." She smiled at his worried expression. "And if you need anything, don't hesitate to call. Ok?"

She giggled, the awkwardness gone, it was so like him to worry like that. "I promise."

Jaune opened his mouth, but closed soon after, giving up on what he was going to say. He took a deep breath, looked at the other few passengers getting on board the ship, and turned back to her.

"Pyrrha, I, I… Just… try not to replace us, okay?" He grinned at her.

"Only if you do the same." She matched his smile.

"Deal."

His hands slipped slowly from her wrist, stopped on her hands and he gave a gentle squeeze; he continued the trail through the back of her hand to her fingertips and then let go. Even if this lasted no more than a few seconds, it felt like an eternity. Even if they were both wearing gloves, she felt the heat of his touch like fire. Even if he just had let go, she already missed it.

"I should get going…" He only gave her a tiny nod in response.

She turned to leave and he didn't prevent her from doing so this time.

In the door of the airship, she looked back to him and gave him one last smile and wave. He did the same.

She could feel their smiles matched once again, both with a hint of sadness.

* * *

Being back to Mistral was nice, the familiar streets of her hometown and the presence of her mother was comforting. Even so, Pyrrha never felt like a month could pass so slowly.

The first week was fine. She spent a lot of her time with her mother, catching up, telling stories about the school, her friends, Vale. It was nice being with her again, even if she could be a little strict sometimes.

She seemed interested to know more about her teammates, she knew the basics from the calls they had from time to time, and Pyrrha suspected her mother was only trying to find out if her daughter was really in good company. Only the best for her girl.

So she told her more. She told her how Ren was quiet, but was one of the most caring people she ever knew, how his cooking was incredible and how it seemed he had an endless supply of patience.

She told her about Nora, how she had an endless supply of energy, and how she and Ren complement each other, how she could light up the room with her energetic personality and, at the same time, intimidate most people with her incredible strength.

And then she told her about Jaune. She told her about their leader with a heart of gold. How he made sure everyone in the team was doing okay, how he improved during the year, how he was great in battle strategy and made the team work together so easily.

She didn't tell her mother how she had developed a crush on him within the first few weeks of class. Or that the way he treated her like a normal person was a like a breath of fresh air, or how he had that cute boyish charm that she found out she was unable to resist, or how the way he smiled when he got a new move right in their training sessions could light up the night, or how the shade of blue of his eyes changed depending on the ambience, or how she dreamed of running her fingers through his messy hair. Nope, her mother didn't need to know any of that.

But the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks the more she talked about him gave her away, and that only made her mother raise an eyebrow. Of course she would notice; part of Pyrrha's ability of reading people came from her.

Her mother seemed to approve of her teammates when she noticed how her daughter was happy with them. And Pyrrha silently thanked the gods during all the rest of their conversation, because her mother had decided to not bring up the fact that she _definitely_ noticed that she had a crush on her partner, and spared her from the embarrassment.

The following weeks were a little slower, there wasn't anything new to do. She didn't really have friends in the town, and people were starting to notice that the famous Pyrrha Nikos was back, so she didn't leave the house much.

She missed Vale, and she knew she was going to miss her friends in Beacon, she just didn't predict how much.

They mostly exchanged messages in their group chat, calls were more complicated because of the time zone difference, but it wasn't the same.

She missed the smell of Ren's pancakes in the morning, she even missed Nora's hyperactivity, and she missed Jaune. Oh, how she missed him. Since the moment they parted, when she got in the airship out of Beacon, she felt a strange feeling in her chest; her heart clenched when she thought how far they were going to be from each other.

Every day this feeling would get stronger, sometimes it almost hurt when it came with a memory of the Beacon Dance, or how he treated her during the Vytal Festival, or how the back of their hands brushed together while they walked down a hallway, how close he would sit to her during classes and lunch, how close they were after they knocked their foreheads in their last day together, the feeling of his hands slipping away from her wrist and the hurt on his eyes when she got in the airship.

As the day of the return to Vale got closer, anticipation, excitement, and butterflies in her stomach were replacing the hurt in her chest. Every night before going to sleep, she thought that she never knew a person that was more eager to go back to a school more than she was.

Finally, the day came. It was Friday, classes would be back next Monday. She didn't actually need to leave so soon, but having the weekend to catch up with her team was all she wished for.

Her mother parted from her at the airport with a hug and a kiss on her forehead, and then she was on her way to Vale.

She would be landing by nightfall, Nora and Ren, of course, would be already there, and Jaune probably would arrive a few hours before her.

He insisted in shortening his break by this weekend too when she told her friends about her plan of coming to Beacon a few days earlier, this made her wonder if he felt anything like she did when they parted one month ago, and she couldn't help but daydream a little of his reaction when they meet again.

* * *

She could already see the green lights of the Beacon tower in the distance.

Suddenly, her palms felt sweaty and she felt a cold in the bottom of her stomach, and she knew it didn't have anything to do with the sensation of the ship losing altitude while it landed.

She saw them. She saw _him_.

Nora was trying to hop on Ren's shoulders, waving her arms wildly. Ren was trying to maintain his balance and keep Nora from falling. Jaune was just following the trajectory of the ship with his eyes as it descended, but she could see, even from the air, that he was standing stiffer than normal, fidgeting with his hands. _"He is nervous."_ The cold in her stomach turned into butterflies. _"Am I the reason?"_ She already knew the answer.

The airship finally came to a full stop. The other passengers gathered close to the door, anxious to leave. With her bags in hand, she was one of the last people to step outside.

Even if Nora was now on a safer piggyback ride on Ren, using her hands as binoculars, it was Jaune who spotted her first.

She stopped involuntarily when he locked his eyes with her. She saw the changes in his expressions, the apprehension, probably for wondering why she was taking so long to get out of the airship, was replaced for just one second with surprise, then with relief, then with such a pure joy that made her heartbeat accelerate.

His expression changed one final time, acquiring something akin to determination. He took a step forward. With the movement, Nora finally noticed that she was there, and started shaking Ren to make him move, but that only made the poor boy lose his balance, making him walk backward instead, trying to keep them both from falling.

But she didn't saw the end of that, because her partner was now walking in her direction. She did the same.

His walk turned into a jog. She unconsciously sped up too.

He was running now, he was close enough for her to really notice the growing smile on his face.

She realized what he was going to do one second before it happened, so she let her bags drop on the floor.

She expected a hug like the one he gave her when she won the Vytal Festival, but instead, he laced his arms around her waist, lifted her up and spun her around once, making her yelp in surprise.

She was sure her face probably matched the color of her hair.

He put her down, laughing and she finally took a good look at him. Even though the night was dark, she could see the flush on his cheeks and the shine in his eyes.

"Hello again." She smiled.

"Hey, Pyrrha." He breathed out.

The way he said her name sent a shiver down her back, the way he was looking at her made her legs go weak, as if he couldn't believe she was really there.

He let out a chuckle, and, as if he knew she was in needed of support to stand at that moment, he hugged her for real this time.

"I missed you so much!" He laughed into her neck, his breath tickled her skin, sending another shock wave through her body.

Her heart was beating so fast that made her body shake, so to sustain herself, she wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes.

"I missed you too."

He was so warm and smelled like home and she didn't want to let go, but after a few seconds, she opened her eyes, just to see Nora, a couple of meters ahead, wiggling her eyebrows at her and grinning like a manic, making hands gestures that alternated between little hearts and finger guns, and Ren by her side, with his hands behind his back, with the smuggest smile on his face.

She found out that she could blush even harder at that exact moment. So she buried her face in Jaune's shoulder and let out a small groan in embarrassment.

"What is it?" He asked, a hint of worry on his voice.

"Nothing, Nora is just being weird again."

"Do I want to know why?"

"No!"

He laughed and she raised her head, avoiding the eyes of her teasing teammates in front of her.

"I should go say hello to them…"

"Yeah…"

"Jaune?"

"Hm?"

"I need you to let me go."

"Right. Yeah. Ok!" His voice actually cracked.

He moved away from her so fast that he stumbled back a little, getting a giggle out of her. She rolled her eyes at his clumsiness and walked in the direction of her other two teammates. Nora didn't even wait for her to approach, she just rushed forward and tackled her in a hug so hard that she almost had to use her aura to not get hurt.

Ren's hug was a hundred times less dangerous.

As she walked into the school with her friends, she never felt so happy.

* * *

After the way he acted on their reunion, she was, without a single doubt, one hundred percent sure that her partner felt a little more than just friendship towards her.

But one thing still intrigued her.

Why in Remnant hadn't he made a single move?

Even Nora and Ren sometimes sent them knowing looks like they were saying _"Why aren't you guys together already?_ " She just sent the same glance back, since considering their own situation, they had no rights to think that.

She sighed and leaned against the wall of the corridor where their dorm was located, waiting for Jaune to get ready for their daily practice in the rooftop, and during the wait, those thoughts came to her.

Yes, he was closer, and he hugged her a few times, but that was it.

And it was confusing because he was always so straightforward and confident with Weiss. He flirted openly with her, he tried numerous times to ask her out, he played guitar for her, he always had a pickup line ready for her.

Ok, she could live without the pickup lines.

The only time he ever made something that could be considered a big move was when he held her hands and hugged her at the Vytal Festival.

Something clicked then. _"That was probably when he realized his feelings..."_

And after that he probably got self-conscious.

Great.

But she couldn't be really mad at him, she knew that sometimes he was really insecure and had a lot of self-doubts, so he probably spent these months since the Festival overthinking about what he was feeling.

So, the result was that, with her, he was always or a clumsy mess, like when she caught him staring in the locker room, and she had to admit, it was kinda cute sometimes; or he would withdraw himself as fast as he could when he realized that _maybe_ she noticed that he was a little closer than normal, like when she stopped in the door frame of their dorm and he touched her back, as if she would be angry at him for that.

And she had to admit, it could have been worse, all of his self-conscience could have led him to avoid her, and that would have been painful.

So at least he got closer, it was something… But what to do when this something wasn't enough?

"Are you ready to go?" Jaune asked her, startling her out of her thoughts, while adjusting the straps of his armor.

"Yes, let's go." She led the way through the familiar corridors.

They went to the rooftop of their dorm building, it was their first extra training session since the end of the winter break, and they reviewed some of the basics to begin, and decided to end by having a little spar.

She could spend hours just narrating how much he improved, and her heart filled with pride when she thought about how she was part of the reason for his progress.

But that day, she noticed that it looked like he lost a little of his touch during the break, or he was really distracted, when she managed to knock him out on the floor for the second time in the night in less than one minute of their match.

"Are you doing ok?" She asked as she offered a hand for him to stand. "Do you need to take a break?"

"No! I'm fine. I just needed to warm up, that's it." He answered as he got up, dusting himself off. "Let's do it again! No more playing around!"

She smiled at his determination and got into the battle stance.

However, the same situation repeated itself. She managed to disarm him easily, and when he tried to make a move to recover his weapons, she noticed an opening that he should have been able to detect and avoid by now, and made her final move.

She grabbed Jaune by his arm and flipped him on the floor, her knee on his chest, one arm on his throat and the other one with Miló, raised above his head.

He just groaned in pain.

"Jaune, what was our first lesson?" She lowered her raised arm, but kept the rest of her position.

His eyes didn't meet hers. "Keep your stance wide. Keep your body lowered. I know…"

"Are you sure you're feeling ok?" She couldn't stop the worry in her voice.

"Yes, I'm fine Pyrrha." He finally looked at her. "I was just..." His face suddenly turned red."…Distracted."

 _Oh._

Now she was the one heating up.

She watches his eyes trail down her face slowly and stop on her lips, which suddenly felt very dry.

She caught a small movement of his mouth, so fast that she almost missed _. "Did he just lick his lips?"_

She felt her heartbeat so loud that he probably could hear it too.

But of course, like every time he got _too_ close, he pulled away as fast as he could.

He let his head fall back on the floor with a thud and groaned. "Ok, I'm beat. Can we wrap up for tonight?" His eyes focused on the sky now.

She couldn't believe what he was doing. His actions made her actually ponder if she should slap him in the face for being so dense, or just kiss him in the spot to end this.

But she just let out a sigh and got up quickly.

"I also think that wrapping up here is for the best." She placed her weapons on her back. "You should get some rest."

He was heading to the door, Crocea Mors already on his belt. "I will. Thanks, Pyrrha."

And then he left.

Well, that was frustrating.

She stayed at the rooftop for a few more minutes, the shattered moon shining in the distance. Suddenly a realization struck and she felt very stupid.

She was always wondering why he hadn't made a move, but why hadn't she either?

She spent so much time analyzing his actions that it didn't cross her mind that she herself could have made a move ages ago.

She could have kissed him when their foreheads knocked together in the corridor, she could have pulled him closer when he grabbed her wrist before boarding the airship and she had another chance when he hugged her when she got back.

But, no, she only had the idea to do it two minutes ago and she didn't take the chance.

The situation was now so ridiculous in her eyes that she couldn't help but to let out a quiet laugh.

Maybe they were both helpless.

But not for long.

Determination crossed her face. She would give him one more chance, until the end of the week, if he doesn't make a move himself until them, she would take the matter into her own hands.

For real this time.

* * *

Friday night, they were again in the usual rooftop, this time for their aura training session.

Even though Jaune had improved greatly in combat, he still had trouble dealing with his aura, and he had yet to unlock his semblance.

If Pyrrha had to guess the reason of his entire struggle, she would say that he has so much aura that it was difficult for him to take control; so now, they always reserve one full day of their extra training to work on it.

She was sitting on the floor, legs crossed, eyes closed, just concentrating. The night was quiet, the weather was pleasantly cold. It was relaxing.

Until a loud sigh and a grunt interrupted her concentration.

She opened her eyes, her partner was in front of her, he wasn't wearing his armor, something he only did for aura training day to help him relax for the meditation, sitting in the same position, but with his back hunched and a defeated expression on his face.

"Why can't I do this?" The frustration was clear in his voice.

"You're thinking too much. Try to relax a little." She said calmly.

"I think I forgot how to do this during the break." He let out a small laugh.

"I thought you said you kept practicing during the break?" She raised an eyebrow.

"And I did! But it was mostly the combat part. Just go and try to find a calm spot to concentrate in a house with other nine people living in it!"

She laughed, imagining the scene.

He scratched the back of his neck.

"Could you maybe… Give one of those… Pushes like you did in our first classes?" He asked.

"But if I do that-"

"Please? Just so I can get the hang of it again?"

She stopped a second to think and smiled at him.

"Fine. But just once. Next time you're trying again by yourself, Okay?"

"Deal!"

She scooted closer to him, until their knees touched, and placed a hand on his cheek.

Closing her eyes, she started feeling the warmth of her own aura activating, looking for his to make a connection. When she felt it reacting, she placed her other hand over his chest, feeling his heartbeat and pushing the forming bond further. This sensation was now familiar to her, the feeling of his aura was comforting and at the same time, powerful.

Behind her closed eyelids, she felt a white light, his aura fully responding to hers, so she withdrew her hands and opened her eyes.

The white glow surrounded his body; his expression was serene.

"Now concentrate." She whispered slowly. "Feel the pull of your soul and try to manifest your semblance."

He exhaled, the glow got brighter, almost making her block the light with her hands.

But suddenly, his eyebrows furrowed, the light flickered, he inhaled, trying to get the control back, but the glow faded a few seconds later.

He just let out another groan.

"I almost had it!" He opened his eyes and tilted his head back, looking at the cloudy night sky. "I finally felt something… Something different… But when I got closer, it disappeared like it was running away from me."

"Oh! But that's great news!" She smiled. "That's a sign you're improving!"

"I don't know…" His gaze went back to her. "Isn't there… an easier way to do this?" He asked sheepishly.

"Well, we could put you in a life or death situation…" She patted her chin. "The stress and urgency at the moment could help-"

"You know what? Let's keep doing what we're doing."

They laughed a bit, but Jaune stopped and looked down at his gloved hands, like he was expecting them to glow again.

She let out a sigh and took his hands on hers.

"Jaune, I know your aura is being hard to deal with, and I know it can be frustrating doing all of this for something that looks like such little progress but-"

"You must keep trying." He squeezed her hands. "I know…" He looked up at her. "I won't give up… At least, not when you're still putting up with me." He smiled.

"I guess we're going to have a lot of time to work then." She matched his expression.

"Thanks, Pyrrha." He whispered.

And there it was, another one of those moments, that were occurring frequently now, that made her face flush and heartbeat accelerate. She could see so clearly in his eyes an adoration that was rarely seen on the face of _just a friend_ , why couldn't he notice that she always sent the same look back?

He looked down at their hands again, for a second, it seemed he was going to say something, but at that moment, a chilly breeze blew through the roof, he shivered, and even if it was hesitantly, he let go of her hands and started to get up. "It's getting cold... Let's go back to the room before we get sick or something."

 _One more chance, until the end of the week._

And he didn't take it.

 _But now she would take the matter into her own hands._

She got up too.

"Actually Jaune, there's one more thing we need to do."

"Oh! What is it?" He stopped, halfway to the door.

She turned to his direction and smiled.

And, in a blink of an eye, she pinned him to the wall, left arm placed right on the side of his head, right arm on his neck and one of his legs secured between hers.

His armor-less back met the wall with a thud and then he let a groan of pain. His eyes were closed from the impact, and when he opened them, focused on her and how close they were, she noticed the blush rise on his face.

"I… Hm, t-t-thought that we were going to train hand-to-hand combat t-tomorrow?" He stuttered.

"Oh! We will!" She answered cheerily, and then lowered her tone. "I thought I would just give you a little… preview…"

"P-p-preview?" His breath hitched when her right arm left his throat and found the way to his hair.

She let out a tiny chuckle. "Jaune?"

"Hm?" Their noses touched.

"I know."

"W-what do you mean?"

"I know how you…" Her other hand started toying with his hair. "… Feel about me…"

His eyes widened in realization, just providing the confirmation for her statement. She just smiled at that.

"I noticed you were getting closer, but you did only that, got closer… Why?" Her brows furrowed, genuine curiosity in her voice.

"I, hm... I… You see-" He struggled, averting her gaze.

"Jaune…" He looked at her, and even though their level of proximity at the moment was new, she gave one of her encouraging smiles, like he was so used seeing in her face.

He exhaled, she felt his body relax, but only by a tiny bit, and he started. "I-I wasn't sure if you l-liked me back…"

"Oh. Really?" She fought the impulse to roll her eyes.

"A-and I'm… I'm just… this guy and you're you, And I know I've been getting better, but I can't help but feel like I'm pulling you back sometimes…" He sighed. "So I thought that maybe…" Oh no, he was not going where she was thinking he was going. "… You deserved someone bett-"

She didn't even let him finish that dumb sentence.

She kissed him.

For one agonizing second she wondered if she came out too strong, she felt him stiff when their lips met, and he didn't move.

But apparently his initial shock faded, and all of her doubts disappeared when he kissed back.

It was awkward at first, his lips were soft, but they trembled in nervousness, so she deepened the kiss to encourage him. He felt him relax, and they found their rhythm right after.

She let a happy sigh escape when she felt his hands trailing slowly down her spine, and then stopping at her waist, above her skirt. Feeling the heat of his touch on her bare skin, she felt like she could catch on fire any second now.

Her hand lowered from his head, to his cheek, to his chin, to his neck, where she managed to get a low groan off him; then to his chest, where she could feel his heartbeat, pounding just as fast as hers, like they were trying to get in sync.

She gave his lower lip one last gentle suck before parting for air, their foreheads and noses still pressing on each other for support.

"Pyrrha…" He breathed out, the tone of his voice and the way he looked at her with half-lidded eyes made goosebumps crawl all over her body.

She kissed him again, and when she licked his lips, looking for an opening, he was happy to oblige, pulling her closer, if it was even possible at that point.

And then the time where she could not ignore her need for oxygen came, regrettably, she started to pull back, but his mouth followed hers, and this made her smile against his lips. She pushed him back with a peck, _accidentally_ making his head bump on the wall, and moved away completely from him.

Without her to support him, he slipped down the wall, he moved his hands fast and propped them by his sides to stop the fall.

She took a long look at him. His breathing was ragged, his hair was a complete mess, his hoodie was out of place and pulled up, revealing a bit of his stomach. His face and ears were red and his lips were pink and swollen; that alone tempted her to kiss them all over again and maybe his neck too this time?

But she didn't.

After taking a deep breath to control her own breathing, all she did was head to the door, turn to his direction and say "Get some rest. Tomorrow is Saturday so we will continue our training in the morning."

He was still in the same position, he tilted his head in a cute way to look at her; his eyes had a different shine on them. "Hm... Ahn… C-continue?"

She just smiled at his stuttering. And then she left.

As she went down the stairs, she had to bite her lips, which still tingled from the kiss, to contain her giggles.

She couldn't believe that she had just kissed Jaune and left him there.

Was leaving the best option? Maybe not, but, oh boy, he was going to play her game for a little bit now.

They would have all the time to solve everything in their training session tomorrow morning, which she was _really_ excited for.

And just by the look she took at him before leaving, she could tell that he felt the same.

Pyrrha was good at reading people.

* * *

 **First of all, thank you so much for reading. Since this is my first fanfic if this length and in this language I would really appreciate if you leave a review to tell me what you think! \o/**

 **I don't know if/when I'm going to post more fanfics, but I know that I loved writing this and would definitely like to do it more! I have some other ideas, one of them could maaaybe be a chapter 2 for this, but I think it all depends on how well this one right here is going to be received.  
**

 **But if you want to see more from me I have a Deviantart under the same username, I'm way more active there.**

 **Thank you again for reading and (hopefully) see you soon! ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

**It's finally done! The promised 2nd chapter is here!**

 **But just some little things before the fic... First of all, thank you sooo much for all the views, reviews, faves, follows, all the support really! When I posted this fic I only expected, like, 50 faves, tops, but now we are here with more than the triple of that number! The reviews never fail to make me smile and I'm actually surprised by the number of views and how well received this fic was! You guys are seriously the best!**

 **And second, wow, geez, I did not expect for this thing turn out this long. I wasn't planning to write Jaune's pov on the events of the first chapter the way I did here, but it kinda happened? And it was great because I could fit two new scenes that I actually had planned for the first part, but at the time they weren't really working.**

 **And just a little warning, this chapter is 18k of pure and shameless fluff, don't blame me for any diabetes or something like that.**

 **Enough babbling now, on with the fic!**

* * *

"Get some rest. Tomorrow is Saturday so we will continue our training in the morning."

"Hm... Ahn… C-continue?"

She just tilted her head in a smile. And then she left.

Alone.

 _Deep breath._

What in the name of Dust had just happened?!

Jaune didn't dare to move, feeling like even if he tried, he wasn't going to be able to. His eyes remained glued to the door that led to the rooftop; he had passed through it countless times ─ and most of those with her by his side ─, though now it looked more like a portal to another dimension. He low-key expected someone to burst through it announcing that everything has been a sick prank.

His legs were starting to hurt from his position from when he had started to fall at the moment she pulled away from him, still half crouched with his back and hands pressed stiffly against the wall. If he was being honest with himself, the absence of her warmth was already quite noticeable to him.

Still, he didn't dare move. Feeling that, if he did, the world would collapse around him, fading like a dream, only to wake up suddenly on his bed with everything that just happened to be a projection of his teenage mind.

A cold breeze ran by. It hit his skin in such a way that he was shocked to feel the difference in temperature, making him realize how hot he was feeling ─ and how fast his heart was still beating. This only made his face heat up all over again, finally letting himself slide down the rest of the wall to sit heavily on the cold floor.

Why was everything so cold after she left?

"Oh wow…"

Jaune ran a hand through his face. He could feel on his palms the heat emanating from it and through his hair; his strands even wilder than normal, her fingers having made a complete mess of it. Taking a deep breath once again, he tried to regain control of his breathing, because she had easily stolen _that_ , too.

The taste of her sweet lipstick lingered on his lips, causing him to lick them. They still tingled as if the only way to make the sensation go away was to kiss her again.

Jaune blinked once, twice; the roof didn't collapse. He was still in the same place, everything was real; everything that just happened _really happened_ ─ and he was a mess.

"She did this to me…" His voice quivered at the end of the sentence, not being able to contain the beginning of a laugh from forming.

She did that to him. And it felt _amazing!_

As the initial shock faded, he found himself grinning like an idiot, biting his lip to prevent himself from screaming and laughing louder than he should at that time of the night.

He couldn't believe they had actually kissed! For the first time _ever_ , a girl Jaune was pinning after actually liked him back. Pyrrha liked him back! He felt like his body was full with a swarm of butterflies, the feeling spreading throughout his body making him feel like he could take on the world.

 _"Then what are you doing still in this roof, you idiot? Get up! Go after her!"_

Jaune pushed his body up quickly, a determined, serious expression on his face. It didn't last long though, for it was soon broken by another silly smile. But he couldn't help it! He couldn't remember the last time he felt so happy!

Actually… he could remember a few situations. And, coincidentally, all those times involved Pyrrha.

* * *

He couldn't tell when his feelings had started.

Maybe they always were there, concealed in the corner of his mind still too small to be acknowledged by him.

He remembers the first time they met; he hadn't actually paid much attention to her. After all, Weiss was in the room, and to his eyes, she was elegant, beautiful and perfect. And she had "complimented" him in the hall during Ozpin's introduction ─ though it was going to be a long time yet before he realized she wasn't actually being serious about it.

However, when he _did_ notice Pyrrha, he couldn't deny that she was good looking. He could recognize a pretty girl when he saw one, and Jaune could say she was _way_ more than just pretty. The nickname _hot stuff_ rolled out of his tongue before he could even think, and Weiss interrupted them before Pyrrha could even react, throwing a series of facts at his poor oblivious past self that conveyed him a single message: _she is_ way _out of your league._

Even with Pyrrha encouraging him right after the other girl destroyed his confidence - a sweet act he didn't expect from a stranger - Weiss' words and the fact his brain interpreted them as she wanting to "get rid of the competition", plus he and Pyrrha actually winding up as partners, where he could see first-hand the obvious difference in skill between them, resulted in him just having one vision: Pyrrha was his partner, Weiss, his crush, and it was as simple as that.

* * *

He couldn't tell when his tunnel vision finally started to crack.

Maybe it was around the dance, when he got his heart crushed by seeing Weiss asking Neptune out. It was official; she wanted nothing to do with him. So Jaune let go.

Deep down he already knew that for some time now, but his feelings were still there, even with rejection after rejection.

Before he saw that, Jaune thought it was because he was doing everything wrong, so he had sought advice. He had poured his heart out to Ren, which turned out with Pyrrha encouraging him in the end ─ a sweet act so typical of his partner ─, and he had felt like he had a chance.

He was wrong, like he always was.

When his plans of hiding in the punch bowl for the rest of the night were interrupted by Ruby telling him that Weiss came to the dance alone, and seeing Neptune in the other side of the ballroom laughing as if everything was just dandy, he felt a rush of anger run through him.

How could he?! He was going to deliver a piece of his mind _right now_ ─ and maybe his fist, too, right to his face!

But then he saw her.

As she passed, for some reason, he wasn't able to take his eyes off her; he told himself it was because he had never seen Pyrrha in a dress before, and he couldn't deny that she looked incredible. But the other detail he noticed was how she seemed so… _upset_. Her shoulders were slumped and her steps up the staircase were slow. He had never seen her walk with such little liveliness before.

Jaune felt the anger inside him slowly melt away - not even remembering why he was feeling that way in the first place. He felt a weird pang on his chest, like he was made of metal and she was using her semblance on him.

He felt like there was just one right thing to do at that moment. So completely forgetting about Neptune for now, Jaune went after his partner.

To say he was shocked to find out that she didn't have a date for the dance was putting it lightly. How could someone like Pyrrha be alone tonight? How could someone not ask her out?

She explained how people always thought she was too good for them, how she struggled to build a meaningful relationship with others, and how he, apparently, had helped her with those struggles.

 _"I guess… you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with. Someone who just saw me_ _for me."_

He was dumbstruck in his place, Pyrrha leaving right after as if she didn't have just dropped a bomb on his hands. Coincidentally, Neptune arrived in the balcony almost at the same second, making him remember why he had left the punch bowl in the first place.

Jaune surprised himself in having encouraged Neptune to go to Weiss, using the same words Pyrrha had told him before. And when the other boy left to do just that, he actually felt lighter, as if he had lifted a weight from his shoulders.

He also felt no hesitation in fulfilling the silly promise he had made to Pyrrha. The embarrassment of showing up in a dress in a ballroom crowded with people was nothing compared to the happiness in the sound of her laugh as they danced together.

* * *

He couldn't tell when he realized that he would like Pyrrha and him to be more than friends.

Maybe it was at the Vytal Festival, after seeing Nora and Ren bugging Pyrrha; even if they had the best of intentions, with exercises a little bit too intense and smoothies a little bit too suspicious.

So they left the dorms to take a walk to the fairgrounds. At some point, Pyrrha suddenly separated from the group and after noticing her absence, he went after her.

When he found his partner sitting by herself right outside the cafeteria, staring at the coliseum hovering above Beacon in the distance, he could tell there was something bothering her. Her gaze was firm in one place, but at the same time, lacked any focus whatsoever, she had a slight frown on her face and seemed lost in thought.

He approached her with a cotton candy on his hands; he had picked it up while looking for her because he knew something sweet always made her feel better.

So sitting by Pyrrha's side, he did his best to cheer her up.

They talked, and when she said that everything was fine, he knew that she was lying. When he felt a new, sudden urge to place his hand over hers as he comforted her, he didn't contain it. When she laid her head on his shoulder and his heart skipped a beat, he found himself enjoying their contact way more than he had expected.

The two of them spent the whole afternoon talking about nothings; their words were exchanged in murmurs and between quiet laughs, as if only the two of them could hear it, but they were so close that they didn't need anything louder than that.

And when it was time to leave for dinner, he didn't want to get up.

They always spent a lot of time together, but this felt different from when they studied or trained; it was relaxing, and… right. Jaune actually couldn't remember a time when he was this happy or light.

He didn't want to move his hand from hers and he didn't want her to move her head from his shoulder. But he got up anyway, offering a hesitant hand for her to do the same. She took it, and then he let go ─ all the while wishing he hadn't.

* * *

Pyrrha had made it to the finals. All the time during her match against Yang, Jaune was hanging in the edge of his seat; he lost his breath every time Pyrrha's aura dropped and screamed in joy at the top of his lungs every time she got a hit. Nora still managed to make more noise than him somehow, so they unintentionally engaged in a contest of who could cheer the loudest. He was pretty sure poor Ren was deaf halfway through the battle.

He almost felt bad for rooting so much against Yang ─ after all, she was a good friend of theirs ─ but when the blonde's aura flashed red in the big screen and Pyrrha was announced the winner, that was the last thing on his mind.

The only thing on his mind at that moment was Pyrrha. She had won!

He jumped in place and Nora burst his eardrums off with a happy shout, the gesture being the final verdict in declaring her the winner of their cheering contest. But he let his noisy teammate have that victory, as he felt the sudden need to be by Pyrrha's side, Jaune had an idea that would be worth much more than just screaming her name, and he didn't resist it.

By pure impulse, he found himself jumping over the wall separating the arena and the stands and running towards his partner.

He saw her expression change from confusion, to surprise, then finally to realization as he got closer; and before he could leave space for her to tell him that he shouldn't have jumped over the stands like he _knew_ she would do, his arms found her waist and pulled her closer in a crushing hug.

"You did it! You did it!" He heard her let out a cute gasp, which soon morphed into a breathless laugh.

"I did it!" She hugged him back just as strong, laughing with him as the crowd cheered and confetti fell around them.

He didn't care that she was still a little sweaty after the stunning fight. Her characteristic scent of leather, metal and of that Mistral shampoo of hers was still there, though how that was possible was beyond his comprehension.

He didn't care that he certainly could get in trouble for his stunt in order to get closer to her, although he hadn't even registered it. Just seeing the look on her face emanating the happiness he himself was feeling and the way she reciprocated his hug with that much enthusiasm made everything worth it.

He didn't care that the whole stadium was watching them. The realization that he loved her hugs and feeling of her giggles against his neck more than enough to eclipse the possible embarrassment he could have felt.

That only made him question… _why didn't they do this more often?_

Hmm… maybe he _could_ tell when he started wanting something more.

* * *

It would take a while for him to admit that to himself though.

After all, it is not as if it was possible for him to like, as in _like-like_ , Pyrrha, right?

She was his partner ─ wouldn't that make it weird? Was that even allowed? Would that mess up the team's interactions? She was undoubtedly his best friend; going in that direction could ruin everything!

Not that he was considering going in that direction or anything, nope.

 _"Do you really think, they are, like, together?"_

 _"How wouldn't they be? He literally jumped in the middle of the arena and hugged her for, like, half hour!"_

The voices snickered from behind the library bookshelves.

 _"Well, they_ are _cute together…"_

He thanked the fact that Pyrrha was behind him in the library's checkout line, so she wouldn't get a glimpse of his face catching on fire. He just shifted the weight of his books on his arms and started to look around for just about anything else to pay attention.

But the only thing he was able to catch was the end of conversation of those two people.

" _Hm, I don't know… I thought someone like her could do better."_

* * *

Even days after he had overheard that conversation, he still couldn't shake off the feeling that they were right.

What was he compared to Pyrrha? She was a literal champion, and he a nobody who cheated his way into the most prestigious Hunters and Huntresses Academy.

What were the odds of someone like her liking someone like him back?

In the hypothetical situation, of course, where he liked-liked her or something like that.

But if there was something he knew for sure is that Pyrrha wanted a friend who she could rely on, and he was more than happy to play that role. Even if they couldn't be something more ─ _hypothetically_ saying he wanted them to be something more ─, he decided that he would be always by her side; just like she had always been there for him, even when he didn't deserve it.

Yet he found himself getting closer to her, and he didn't even realize it at first.

Now his hand would brush hers with more frequency than what would be considered normal, and he would have to fight the foreign temptation to lace their fingers together. Those accidental touches would make his heart beat like he had just run a marathon, but he downplayed them, pretending that they didn't happen.

Touching her back that one time when they were heading to their room totally had been an accident! It's not like he wanted to hold her close as they walked or something like that, nope. And the occasional touches of their knees or shoulders, while they sat side by side in class, were totally unintentional too! Though she never moved away, and neither did he.

Still, all of this felt so _nice_. More and more he found himself liking the sensation of his heartbeat speeding up and the fluttering in his stomach.

He liked being closer to her.

* * *

But how could he not?

Seriously, he never imagined it to be possible to exist someone who wouldn't like to spend some time with Pyrrha. She was always so friendly, and kind, and sweet and that way she greeted with that "Hello again!" was just _so_ adorable.

She was always helping others ─ and helping him by standard ─ even when she didn't need to. She had fame and strength, yet she never bragged, never let that get over her head; he could easily say she was the most humble person he knew.

Pyrrha had such a sweet voice, too; he could listen to her talk for hours about whichever subject she wanted. She had a laugh that never failed to make him smile and he loved the sound of it.

He also loved the green of her eyes and the little specks of gold they had around each iris, a small detail that he had noticed several times when they were face to face in their training sessions; he lost count of all the times he ended up on the floor because he got distracted by them. He loved the red of her hair and the way her ponytail swayed from side to side as she walked, the sight not failing once in making him wonder how it would look if she wore it loose, if the strands would feel just as soft against his fingers as he imagined.

He lov─ _oh Dust_! He was staring! Did she catch him staring? Was it obvious that he was staring?! Why was he staring?!

He just had been watching Pyrrha finish grabbing her stuff in her locker. Where had all those thoughts come from?!

His eyes met hers for a second, startling him. He immediately lowered his gaze to the pile of books requested for Oobleck's class on his arms, trying to hide the growing bright blush on his face.

Jaune only lifted his eyes back up again when he heard a light giggle as she approached him, bumping her shoulder on his playfully.

"Let's go see if Ren and Nora managed to save us a seat."

He blinked and shook his head, maybe she hadn't noticed after all.

"Hum... Yeah! Go! Right."

She walked ahead, and he remembered that he loved to watch her go, too.

 _No, bad Jaune!_

Now he could finally notice how his pulse had quickened; letting out a sigh, he admitted to himself that his thoughts hadn't come from nowhere. He was getting tired of denying.

Jaune sped up to match her steps.

 _He had a crush._

He tripped on the bench.

 _He had a crush on Pyrrha._

He saw her eye roll and smile by the corner of his eyes.

 _Yep. A really,_ really _, huge crush._

* * *

He chose the worst moment to acknowledge his feelings.

Really? Right before finals week? Everyone was so busy and everything was so rushed that they barely had time to talk about anything besides school stuff. And when all of their exams passed, winter break would begin and they would spend a whole month apart.

So yeah, he felt a little frustrated.

Okay, it was not like there was a chance of her liking him back. Yet now that he knew what it was he was feeling, Jaune enjoyed even more spending time with her. Even if they couldn't be something more, at least they were close.

But guess he would have to deal with it.

Then, the last day of the year in which everyone in his team would spend relishing in each other's company came, sadly, much sooner than he would have liked.

The four of them had planned a full day of activities together. Unfortunately, they had to stay on the school's ground because of the bad weather, but that didn't mean one bit that they were going to be stopped by that – Nora especially wouldn't even dream of allowing that to happen.

Their day was concluded with a movie marathon – movies they spent the whole year saying that they were going to watch but never did, so now was the perfect opportunity to catch up.

He drifted his eyes off the screen for a moment to take a look at his surroundings, only being able to discern his teammate's features because of the glow which emanated from the television. They had opted to sit on the floor, encircled by all the blankets and pillows they could find to warm themselves against the chilly weather, with their backs leaning against the wall. It gave the room a lazy sleepover atmosphere.

Ren was wrapped from head to toe in blankets - Jaune was surprised that the boy hadn't fallen asleep yet - with a bowl of popcorn over his legs – oh wait, _Nora's legs_ , that were lazily plopped over her partner's lap.

Nora was laying down in the floor, her head on Pyrrha's lap, eyes not leaving the television not even for one second, gesturing wildly from time to time, a signal for Ren to put the popcorn closer for her to reach.

Pyrrha was sitting right by his side. His gaze lingered on her for some time – well… actually, much more than he would care to admit. She seemed relaxed, occasionally letting out a chuckle for something that was happening onscreen, her hand idly toying with Nora's hair; her eyes reflected the light that the TV produced in the otherwise dark ambiance, causing them to give the impression of shifting colors in synch with each scene change.

He scooted closer to her until their arms touched with the excuse of reaching the popcorn, not being able to take the distance any longer. Pyrrha, noticing his attempt to reach the bowl, promptly handed it to him, offering some. Pretending that that was all he wanted, Jaune took a handful, giving her a smile in gratitude, which she promptly returned with one of her own.

Just then she moved her body forward – a move that resulted in a fleeting groan from Nora's filled with popcorn mouth – to place the bowl between the four of them onto the floor where everyone could easily reach it. And when she leaned back, her head fell on his shoulder, courtesy of his recent relocation.

"Oh. Sorry!" She whispered as she quickly moved her head up.

"No, no! I-it's fine. I don't mind!" He rushed a reply just as quiet.

"Oh!" He saw the corner of her lips curl up slightly – and no! He was absolutely not staring at her mouth! – before she leaned her head back on him.

Jaune stiffed for a second, his breath hitched and his body immediately filled with the familiar sensation of butterflies dancing around in his stomach. When he had scooted closer to her earlier, he was expecting just for their arms to touch, a subtle contact that he was hoping that she wouldn't move away from. But in addition to that, the new weight on his shoulder proved that he got something so much better.

The movie went on, and halfway through it, he started to doze off. He had lost interest in whatever was happening onscreen long ago, it being hard to focus on anything else with Pyrrha leaning against him, her presence somehow so comfortable and warm… he just wanted to get closer and maybe take a nice nap.

He was pretty sure Ren, now without the ultimate task of holding the bowl away from Nora, had already fallen asleep – even if it was hard to tell with all those blankets covering the boy. Nora, who had moved from Pyrrha's lap some time ago to lay over Ren's collection of blankets, was probably the only one that was actually focusing on the screen – if she was paying attention to the movie was a completely different matter though –, but as long there was something to eat, she would probably be awake.

Pyrrha was still looking at the television even though her half-lidded, unfocused eyes and the slow, long blinks suggested that she was just as interested in finishing this movie as him.

He suppressed a yawn. The day had been agitated, and this was their second movie of the day, so he gave in to the temptation and closed his eyes, his head leaning to the side and accidentally burying his cheek in Pyrrha's hair. But he was too tired and too comfortable to bother moving away, the soft strands of her bangs tickled his cheek and the sweet faint smell of her cinnamon shampoo filled his nostrils as he sought the most comfortable position.

Jaune's last thoughts before he lost himself to his dreams was how he was going to miss his teammates and how this was going to be a _very long_ month.

* * *

He shifted around inside his blankets. It was almost 5 a.m., Pyrrha had just woken up a few minutes earlier to get ready for her flight to Mistral.

Shutting his eyes tight, Jaune pulled the sheets to his chin, curling deeper into them while trying to force himself to go back to sleep. Yet it was clear that, even with all his effort, it wasn't working.

He let out a huff and buried his face on his pillow. He had made a fool of himself yesterday; he was going to be away from his partner, his best friend, _his crush,_ for one whole month and when they were saying their goodbyes, the best thing he was able to do was to give her an awkward smile and wave.

Why had he done that? Why hadn't he given her a hug or something like that? They were partners, they were friends, he could have done that easily. Ugh, he just… didn't know how to… girls… ugh, he was _so_ stupid.

Jaune opened his eyes and turned around on the mattress, his gaze falling in the pile of luggage gathered by Pyrrha's bed – she hadn't left yet, so it meant he still had a chance to fix this. He made up his mind and tossed his sheets to the side, ignoring the painful loss of his comfy bed's warmth while doing so.

But if losing the warmth of his bed was bad, stepping out of the heated dorm room to the corridor was absolute _torture_. It was as if the air didn't even care about the thick layer of clothing he was wearing and found ways to sneak in and crawl along his skin, the pure ice-white walls around him _and_ the fact that it was still dark also didn't help with making the place any cozier.

He blew into his hands before stuffing them into his pocket, he definitely should have worn another pair of gloves instead of his usual finger-less leather ones. Jaune didn't even know that Beacon's dorm building could get this cold! _That_ 's what you get for waking up before sunrise.

But as soon as he heard footsteps coming down the hall, he shut his complaints away, reminding himself that he was there for just one reason.

Pyrrha rounded the corner carrying her backpack, he saw her eyes widening in surprise at the same moment she noticed he was there. She was dressed a little more appropriately for the weather than him – his partner was never really a big fan of the cold, so it was no surprise to see her all bundled up. Pyrrha looked so warm and soft… and admittedly, really adorable with that fluffy overcoat of hers. He almost considered meeting her halfway in the corridor just to hug her right there and then, just to feel her close and as warm as she was probably feeling.

But he didn't. He just waited for her to approach him close enough to whisper, "Hey. I thought you maybe could use some help? I think I got all your stuff, is there something missing?"

"Yes. I mean, no! That's all of it." She sounded just as surprised as she looked, but her voice found it's usual tone as she continued. "You didn't need to do this for me. It's really early. You should be resting for your trip."

 _Oh,_ trust me _. I did need to._

"Don't be silly, Pyrrha, that's what partners are for." He cringed internally with the use of _partners_. Should he have said something else? He felt like he was giving her the impression that that was all they could ever be. Should he have said friends? Best friends? Or partner was really the best option? Did he really think that they could ever be something more? Why was he overthinking this? Why was this so hard?

Before he could melt his brain with those burning thoughts though, he quickly blurted out, trying to cover up from his momentaneous shutdown, "Let's go then? Or do you need to do something else?"

She just shook her head. "I'm all ready, let's go."

He bent to get her bags on the floor, and the next thing he registered was a pain on his forehead and that something had collided with his hand.

"Ouch!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't worry, its fine." He chuckled. Of course he and Pyrrha would go for the same bag.

He shook his head lightly and opened his eyes.

Then, the world seemed to stop.

Pyrrha was close. Like, _really close_. The corridor was dark but that didn't stop him one bit from taking in one more time every little detail he loved about her eyes. He could feel her breath mingling with his and it would take the most minimal effort to get their noses to touch. He could feel her fresh out of the shower scent with the smell of her floral soap. He forgot what feeling cold was because her proximity made his heartbeat go crazy, warming his entire body up. He wanted to raise his hand and tuck that one loose strand of hair behind her ear, then slide his fingers to her neck and pull her close, kiss her like they had all the time in the world.

But that was a thing that they definitely didn't have, and she needed to catch an airship; the only thing he ended up doing, in fact, was to knock his forehead on hers like a clumsy idiot, and he was probably also making her late for her flight.

And she wouldn't ever want to kiss him anyway.

"C'mon… let's go or you're going to be late."

* * *

He deserved an award, really.

He would easily bet that there was no other person in Remnant with the talent to mess things up as much as he did.

He had made it awkward.

He had woken up just to fix things - because they were awkward - and he was able to make everything _even more_ awkward.

And now they were standing in Beacon's docks, with the only noise around being the wind rushing between them. He tried to think of something – anything – to say, but just the possibility of making things _unbearably awkward_ with his next words was enough to make his tongue tied.

"Well, there it is." Her voice interrupted his internal breakdown.

"Yeah…"

The ship landed, she took her bags on her hands, and turned to his direction, giving him a tiny smile.

"I guess I'll see you next month. Goodbye Jaune."

She took the first step to leave and his heart stopped.

 _Wasn't the main reason you woke up was to fix this? Are you really going to leave things this way?_

So, before it was too late, he rushed forward and took her wrist in his hand. "Pyrrha, wait!"

She stopped, and when she turned back to him, he felt his tongue go tied again, but now for a completely different reason.

"I, hum…" He let go of a breath – he could do this! "Please get in touch with us when you get home. Oh! And don't forget to eat your breakfast." He slowed down when he saw the beginning of a smile on her face. "And if you need anything, don't hesitate to call. Ok?"

She giggled and it was like the weather had cleared. "I promise."

He opened his mouth, then closed it when the words escaped him; he had so much more he wanted to say to her. He wanted _so bad_ to let her know how much he was going to miss her, how much he cared about her.

"Pyrrha, I, I… Just… try not to replace us, okay?" It wasn't exactly what he wanted to say. But maybe it was better this way.

"Only if you do the same."

"Deal." He accepted the compromise in a heartbeat. After all, how would he be able to do _that_? Replacing her was the most ridiculous thought that had ever existed.

If the sound of her laugh was like the weather was clearing, letting her go, feeling his hand slip away from hers, watching her walk away to get into the airship, had to be exactly the opposite.

As Jaune walked back to the dorms, he felt like he was in the middle of a snowstorm.

* * *

"So, Pyrrha Nikos finally graces me with a call!"

"Jaune! You know well it's nothing like that!"

"And you know pretty well that I'm kidding." He saw her frown melt away in a smile on his scroll screen.

"Ok, fine." She let out a short giggle. "Now that we _finally_ managed this call… tell me, how is your break going?"

He hadn't expected getting in touch with his friends would be so difficult. Actually, calling Ren and Nora back in Beacon was mostly fine; the problem was getting a hold of Pyrrha.

The difference in time zones between Mistral and Beacon already made things complicated, so the difference between the former and his hometown in southwest Vale made everything worse. It also almost seemed the universe was conspiring against them, their schedules never aligned. It had been almost two weeks, and all they managed to do was exchange texts in their group chat.

Then, one day she had let escape that the time of the day she was most free was during the mornings, and he was finally able to get in touch with her.

He didn't care that her mornings meant the sun hadn't even begun to rise for him yet. Just being able to hear her voice, even if it was a little distorted from his scroll speakers, and seeing her through video, even if it had that light bluish tint from the screen, was enough to make it all worth it.

Jaune didn't even notice time passing by, they just talked about things they were doing during the break, about their towns, their families or just about random things.

It hadn't even been two weeks yet, but he's missed her so much now that sometimes it was like it physically hurt. He caught himself more than once daydreaming during family dinners, or during walks through his town, or when he was just feeling bored of how much he wished she could be there by his side. So now he took the opportunity to absorb every little detail about her, and with their scrolls on tablet mode, he had a nice view.

Pyrrha was still on her bed – much like him –, but the similarities ended there; with pure white blankets and pillows that looked that they were made of clouds around her. He could swear she was at one of those fancy hotel rooms that he always saw on TV; it would be believable enough if he hadn't already known that she was in her own house. But he was getting off track – the light colors seemed to exist only to serve the purpose of highlight the red of her hair, which was messily spread around the pillow, and the green of her eyes, that never failed to take his breath away.

He was able to notice the faint morning sun rising by a large window behind her, casting a light glow into her room, and the much clearer weather compared to his own location. It was no surprise, after all, Mistral was much warmer than Vale. That was even more noticeable when she probably only needed her blankets to provide warmth during the night, given the fact that she seemed to be wearing very light pajamas. His eyes wandered to her shoulders, where he could see the really thin strap of her shirt, and then to her bare pale neck, rarely seen free from the high collar of their uniforms or the golden piece of her armor.

His mouth felt dry. He shouldn't be staring, he was probably acting like one of her creepy fanboys and the idea terrified him. But he couldn't help it, he was still a teenage boy with a crush, and after not seeing her and being away from her for days, he wasn't able to contain himself.

She was beautiful, and he would never deny that.

"… ne? Jaune?!" He jumped in place on his bed by her raised tone of voice, startling him out of his thoughts. "You were saying something, then you suddenly stopped… are you feeling alright?"

"I… Y-yes, I'm fine." He ran a hand to his face, which soon found its way to his hair out of habit, trying to mask the blush that he knew was undoubtedly there. "I was just… a thought just came to me, that's all."

"Oh! Mind sharing?"

He found her eyes again. Even through the screen, Jaune could feel her ever-gentle gaze. He could tell her – tell everything. But doing that during a call was probably the worst way. And the fear of rejection crawled up his spine like the most deadly Deathstalker he could ever think of - probably the one he mistook for a relic on Initiation Day. Yeah, not his best moment, he had to admit.

"I guess I just really miss you guys." He scratched the back of his neck; the _guys_ at the end of the sentence was a last-second addition, but it escaped before he could think; Jaune shook his head – he was such a coward. "It's kinda weird not being with everyone."

She let out a laugh. "I know exactly what you mean! One day I woke up here to the smell of pancakes, and all I could think was _how do I smell pancakes but there are no screams of joy or explosions?_ " She shook her head with a chuckle. "Also, the pancakes were not as good as Ren's."

He laughed along with her. "Oh man, when we get back, Ren better double the pancakes for us."

"Agreed! But we will have to find a way to contain Nora during that."

An amused snort escaped from him at her comment. "I miss them..." He let his laughter die down then. He let out a sigh and fidgeted with a wrinkle on his blanket, avoiding her eyes for a second. "And… It's funny… We have known each other for, like, just one year…" He took a deep breath and looked up, their gazes meeting once again. He wanted so much to say this, it was going to cost all the courage he had in store, but he was going to do it! "…But I just can't imagine my life without you."

It was not the confession he considered a few minutes earlier, but he felt like he had to get – at least some part of it – out of his chest.

He saw surprise wash over her features before a beautiful smile took over. "Me neither…" Her reply was barely a whisper, but it was just enough for him.

Pyrrha had told him once that he had helped her make friendships that would last a lifetime, and he was happy he was one of them.

A yawn found a way out of his lips. He was holding those in for as long as he could, but the sun hadn't even risen yet and he had completely lost track of the time while they talked.

"Mmh sorry…" He said between another yawn as rubbed his eyes. "I guess I have to take a nap or something."

"Take a nap?" She tilted her head. "Why- Oh." Pyrrha cutting her own sentence caught his attention, and he was able to focus once more. "I completely forgot…"

"What are you talking about?" Now it was his turn to look confused.

"Jaune… what time is it where you are right now?" The low tone of her voice almost made him shudder.

He turned his head slowly to the side, to the nightstand right next to his bed, trying to take a good look at the clock on it, but his eyes were too blurry from sleepiness and spending so much time looking at a bright screen. It was probably showing some ungodly hour of the night, though. "Ehr..." Jaune just turned his head back and blurted out. "That's not important!"

"Did you… woke up in the middle of the night… just to talk to me?"

"Pffft… No." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Maybe…"

She opened her mouth.

"Don't apologize!" He pointed at her. "It's already done!" He said smugly like he had just won the discussion.

She only lightly rolled her eyes at him. "Alright then. I… I'll let you sleep."

If he wasn't so tired he would have taken into consideration that he could swear he had detected a bit of hesitation in her voice.

"Okay... Goodnight, Pyrrha. Or morning… whatever."

She giggled, and the sound he would carry to his dreams.

"Goodnight, Jaune."

* * *

He couldn't stand still.

He tipped on his toes, he fidgeted with his hands, he messed with his hair, he toyed with his coat zipper, he did everything _but_ stand still. Nora was also bouncing in place, but that was because she was Nora and that was totally normal for her.

"Can you guys stop for one second?" Ren let out a sigh. "You are making even _me_ nervous."

"Pfft. Yeah, right." Nora scoffed.

"I'm not nervous!" His own voice cracked.

"Well, I know that I'm totally not nervous!" Nora dramatically pointed at herself. "I'm just really excited to get team JNPR back together!" She jumped and pumped her fist in the air, her enthusiasm more than clear in her gestures.

"And why would Jaune be nervous?" Nora elbowed him and wiggled her eyebrows, for some reason Jaune didn't like this look his teammate was giving him. "It's just his partner and _best friend_ that's coming back for her trip after a whooole month apart without seeing each other in person!"

"I'm not nervous!" He repeated, firmer this time, Nora just grinned at him. Seriously, what was going on with her? "I'm just cold, and moving to produce some body heat!" Jaune huffed.

"Yeah, yeah, you keep telling yourself tha- Oh! Oh! There it is!" Nora started jumping again and pointed a finger at the night sky, the glowing lights of the airship steadily approaching the Beacon's docks. "Ren let me up! I want to see better!"

"Ow! Nora, wait!"

The ship got closer, and he realized that Pyrrha probably could see them from the window, so he took a deep breath and tried to stay still.

Nora had managed to get on a piggyback ride on Ren as the passengers flooded the docks, and after a few seconds, she said the exact words that were on his mind. "Where is she?"

Jaune couldn't help but start to worry. Most people had already left, but there was no sign of Pyrrha. Nora proceeded to look around to the people that passed through them, using her hands as binoculars as she scanned the crowd, but he kept his eyes glued to the door.

Then his heart skipped a beat when his eyes suddenly locked with familiar green. She was there! His worry flew away with the breeze and he finally let go of a breath he didn't even notice he was holding.

He kept his eyes on her and everything around him seemed to disappear. He noticed her lips curl up slightly in that way that was just so… Pyrrha - and that only made his own smile grow bigger.

She was so close, and he just wanted to end for once and for all the distance between them.

Oh, wait. He could do that! She was literally right there! The last time he regretted not giving her a hug, so now he was not going to miss the opportunity. Plus it wouldn't be weird, because he got the excuse of being apart from her for that long.

So Jaune took a step forward and watched her do the same.

His walk turned into a jog and, before he realized, he was running.

She dropped her bags on the floor and opened her arms, and that only motivated him to keep going.

His arms circled her waist as if they were made specifically for that, he pulled her against his body and he didn't make any effort to resist the impulse of lifting her up and spinning her around.

He laughed and he heard her gasp. For a second he wondered if he had gone too far, but with just one look at her when he placed her back on the ground discarded that possibility. She had the most beautiful smile on her face and he instantly felt his own face heat up.

"Hello again." Gods, how he missed that.

"Hey, Pyrrha." His words came out almost like a breathless whisper. It was no surprise though, she always managed to steal his breath away always so effortlessly.

He had missed _so much_ being close to her.

Jaune let out a tiny chuckle, she was right there on his arms and he never felt happier. He pulled her in for a hug one more time, burying his face on her shoulder.

"I missed you so much!" He finally said it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he let out another laugh.

"I missed you too."

She was so warm and smelled like home and he didn't want to let go.

Then, the moment was broken when she let out a groan, and he felt her bury her face on his shoulder. "What is it?" Jaune asked worryingly.

"Nothing, Nora is just being weird again."

 _Of course._

He sighed. "Do I want to know why?"

"No!"

He laughed at her rushed reply as Pyrrha raised her head.

"I should go say hello to them…" She found his eyes and he was unable to look away.

"Yeah…" He didn't want to let go, but he wasn't going to be selfish, he knew that their other teammates were just waiting their turn.

"Jaune?"

"Hm?"

"I need you to let me go." The corner of her lips tilted up in a smile.

 _Oh._

"Right. Yeah. Ok!"

He finally moved away from her and watched Nora rush forward to give Pyrrha a crushing hug that made him flinch just by looking, then Ren approached with a much safer hug.

He watched the scene with a silly smile plastered on his face. The team was back together. And he couldn't be happier.

* * *

Jaune felt his aura working it's magic on the pain all over his muscles while he splattered some cold water on his face.

He was so stupid.

He had just left their first training session of the year, and he had gained another opportunity to kiss her.

 _Another splash of water._

He had the opportunity, and he had let it get away.

 _Again_.

He let out a frustrated groan, letting the sound reverberate freely around the empty boys' bathroom.

The image of her over him after she knocked him on the floor for the third time came back to his mind, making his face heat up even after receiving another handful of cold water.

His body - and his pride - were hurt for all the times she beat him up that night, but he didn't care, he could only focus on how she contrasted beautifully against the night sky. Her eyes glinted as if they had the shine of their own star, it would take just one tiny move up for him to place a light kiss on the tip of her cute nose, then trail down to her lips that had looked oh so kissable at that moment. She had been so close and, for a second, he actually thought he was going to have the guts to do what he dreamed of doing for such a long time.

But, of course, he chickened out like every single time. After all, they were supposed to be training! She willing spared some of her precious free time just to teach him, to help him with things that would be crucial for his career as a Huntsman and he let some intrusive thoughts get in the way, wasting her time!

He was such a coward.

And he was afraid.

He was afraid of ruining their relationship, he was afraid of rejection, he was afraid of the mere thought of her avoiding him.

He turned the sink off, and let go of a breath. Finally deciding that he was not going to risk what they had because of some silly crush.

He was afraid of messing up. He always did, why would this time be any different?

* * *

 _"Actually, Jaune, there's one more thing we need to do."_

 _"Oh! What is it?"_

He had never felt so happy about being wrong.

* * *

His hand hovered shakily around the doorknob.

Jaune had just left the roof and now he was standing in front of his dorm door, but even if he had tried several times already, for some reason, he couldn't seem to be able to open the forsaken door.

When he had first gone down the staircase that led to the roof, he was feeling confident! He had a purpose! As if nothing was going to be able to bring his mood down!

But the time he took going to the bathroom to make himself look less like a mess, then proceeding to accidentally walk to the wrong hall on the way to his room, then having to go back and walk to the right one, then having to go back _again_ because he forgot his scroll, which he needed to get in the room, at the bathroom - was just enough to cause his nervousness to act up again.

He didn't know why he was feeling so nervous about the idea of _just getting in!_ He was feeling like he was the happiest person alive just a few minutes ago, where had all this anxiety come from?

Dumb question – because he already knew the answer. She probably was on the other side of the door, and that was it.

Jaune took a deep breath; he was tired of feeling this way. She had kissed him! If there was a clearer sign that she liked him back and that he wasn't supposed to feel this nervous, he didn't know what it could be.

He finally got his scroll and unlocked the door, turning the doorknob and crossing the threshold into the familiar sight of his dorm room.

Ren and Nora were there, on their left side of the room, though he barely registered their presence, his eyes had searched only for her immediately. Pyrrha was sitting on her bed, facing away from the door, so she didn't see him getting in. She was already in her pajamas, her arms raised to her head, her hands going through her long locks as she redid her ponytail.

He blinked and shook his head; he probably should stop staring and get his own stuff ready so he could get some sleep.

Finally closing the door, Jaune made his way to his corner at the other end of the room. As he passed in front of her bed, he chanced a glance in her direction. He didn't know what he was expecting to happen, but when their eyes met, he felt his face burst with color at the beautiful smile she gave him.

Then he stubbed his feet in the foot of the bed, tripped and hit his leg in the bedside.

"Jaune! Are you okay?" In a blink of an eye, she was by his side, supporting him by the shoulders.

"I'm fine." He let out a light chuckle. "I just, hm… need to watch better where I'm going."

She gave him a small laugh, and again, he felt like he couldn't take his eyes off her. Her hands were still on his shoulders, and he could swear she got even closer, or he was the one who did, he couldn't tell. He saw her cheeks tint in pink, and he almost couldn't believe it… he was making her blush!

Now that he really stopped to think, he already had noticed that before, but Pyrrha's blushes were a light, delicate thing – or she managed to hide them pretty well -, so he always thought that they were because of the weather, or makeup, or exertion from training, or something like that. Jaune had never thought of him as the reason for those. This realization only caused his own face to match her colors.

Pyrrha looked down for a second, breaking their eye contact and causing his thoughts to run away from him, and when she looked back, he felt like something was wrong.

He knew that face, that was her _"I'm sorry"_ face. Whatever could she want to apologize for? Could she reject him even after what happened? Was she going to say that everything was a mistake? Was she-

"Jaune…" The way she said his name made his mind calm down enough for him to stop and listen. "I'm sorry if… I was a little… forceful in our… training today." Pyrrha removed her hands from his shoulders, placing her words carefully, her tone just below a whisper, probably to avoid catching their other teammate's attention.

"Oh."

"… But, I will admit, you were kind of driving me crazy." She punctuated her sentence with a laugh.

"A-ah!" His eyes widened, his face caught on fire once again and he felt his heart do some weird stunt on his chest.

Jaune only heard her giggling at his reaction; she could only enjoy messing with him - that had to be it.

He found her eyes again, noticing the playful glint on them before he continued. "But, anh… you don't need to apologize..." He cleared his throat. "I kinda… needed that?"

She gave him one of her smiles that took his breath away, and one of her tiny eye rolls, which meant, yeah, she knew he needed that little push.

"I…" She began, then turned her head to the other side of the room where the other half of the team was settled. He was finally able to see how they hadn't been interrupted during their talk.

Nora was buried under her sheets, pillows and stuffed toys, playing a game on her scroll with her headphones on, and Ren was quietly reading a book, casually taking a sip of his tea, seaming completely absorbed in the words. That was probably what Pyrrha wanted to see because she turned back to him quickly, and continued, "I think it's better if we continue our conversation tomorrow."

"Yeah. Totally." He agreed. Talking about these things required some level of privacy, and he knew that if Nora heard any of it, half of the school would know about everything before even they finished figuring things out for themselves.

Pyrrha took another quick glance back, and when she turned to him once again, before he could even register, she placed a light, soft kiss on his cheek, making his heart jump. "Goodnight, Jaune."

"Ah. Hm... G-goodnight." She went back to her bed after one last smile. He placed a hand over where her lips had been, the ghost of her touch still causing his skin to tingle pleasantly, and just stood there for a few more seconds, like an idiot with a silly grin on his face, before realizing that he definitely still needed to get himself and his own bed ready for the night.

When Jaune settled down on the mattress, the butterflies in his stomach were more awake than never, but he still managed to close his eyes and find sleep.

He felt like the next day was going to be a good one.

* * *

The day had started pretty great! He had an undisturbed night of sleep with pleasant dreams, had woken up feeling refreshed and with a good mood, there were pancakes in the menu for breakfast, the weather was nice, starting to warm up, with spring being just around the corner.

He was able to perform his morning routine normally.

And that was what was bothering him. Everything was _too normal._

Aside from glances that lingered for longer than usual and occasional blushes that were more noticeable - at least to him - it seemed that nothing had happened between Pyrrha and him.

They followed their morning as usual, retaining the proximity they already had. Their hands brushed against each other while they headed for breakfast; where they sat side-by-side, knees touching under the table – but, admittedly, that was normal for them for a while now.

At least things were not awkward, they talked normally with each other and with the rest of the team, which, by some miracle, didn't seem to have noticed anything different between them.

The presence of Ren and Nora was the explanation he had for things to be like they were. So Jaune expected that when they were alone in the rooftop for their Saturday training, things would change.

* * *

Pyrrha was kicking his butt, and he couldn't shake off the impression that she was having a bit more fun than usual this time.

But he had to admit… hand to hand was not his strongest fort. He was proud to say that he was above average in strategy, and his swordplay had improved so much that he didn't lag behind the class like in their first year any longer. But even his aura, when it decided it was in a good mood to act up, was more reliable than his fists.

Still, he was in a point of his training where he could at least last some _respectable_ time against Pyrrha. Yet, today he felt like she was not holding back one bit, taking in consideration that it wasn't even a few seconds from the beginning of their match, and he was already on the floor.

She laughed as she offered a hand for him to get up. "Well done! That was better than last time. But let's try that again."

Jaune just groaned before taking her hand; after all, he couldn't say no to her. Pyrrha could be making him discover that there were parts of his body he didn't even know that could hurt that bad; but with every word of encouragement, every sweet smile and gentle touch she gave him after each one of his tries, were enough motivation for him to keep going.

"And remember, Jaune, if you see an opening, don't be afraid to take it." He could only nod at her words; there was something… almost intense about her gaze and tone of voice, as if she meant something more than he was able to comprehend, causing him to swallow hard. But that only lasted one second; when she smiled at him and squeezed his hand lightly before letting go, stepping away to assume her stance in front of him, he wondered if any of that had even happened.

He copied her stance, adjusting his position; feeling a sense of accomplishment by the fact that she didn't correct anything about it this time. She nodded at him, a sign for them to begin, and they started to circle slowly around each other.

He kept his stare on her all the time, trying to catch any indication that she would advance, but a few seconds passed, and she had not given him a single hint that she would attack.

Then the way her eyes sharpened when he looked into them made him _finally_ realize only one thing: _she was waiting for him to take the first step._

Something clicked inside his mind.

His realization didn't just apply for their match, her words from before really meant something more, his morning had been unusually normal because of just one reason.

She was waiting for him to make a move.

She probably had been waiting all morning, just for him to stop being stupid and make a move.

She knew about his feelings, and he knew about hers. What was holding him back?

 _Nothing._

His mind cleared. Now he knew what he had to do.

He made his move. He saw from the corner of his eyes a small smile spreading to her face. Of course, she dodged his advance effortlessly. That was no surprise to him though, so his stance didn't quiver one bit as he launched his next attack.

Pyrrha seemed almost surprised with his immediate response to her dodge, so this time she blocked instead of moving away. He took the opportunity and kept pushing forward, keeping her in defensive; every lesson he had until now seeming fresh on his memory, for the first time in forever, there was no hesitation on his moves.

Then, it happened.

Everything seemed to slow down. He saw an opening and, knowing her, it wouldn't be there for long, so in the same second, following her advice without any second-guessing, he took it.

Her back hit the wall with his last lunge. He held her hands firmly by the side of her head, not giving her the chance to slip away. Months of low-sweeps taught him the hard way to avoid those, so he also made sure there was no means for him to end up on the floor.

He had pinned her against the wall. And by the manner her eyes widened after the impact, she couldn't believe it either.

"I… won?" He whispered; his words dripped with surprise and disbelief.

She looked up to his hand over her wrists, then to the rest of their position, his body against hers, keeping her in place, before looking back to him. "It appears so." He could hear the smile and a hint of pride in her voice.

Jaune didn't hold back the laughter from escaping from his mouth. "I can't believe it!" He stopped for a moment, tilting his head, and asked. "How did you let this happen?"

"Let this happen?" Her brows knitted together before she shook her head. "I didn't _let this happen_ , you did!"

"I did…" His tone of voice was full of wonder, winning against _Pyrrha Nikos,_ even if it was just in a light practice match – one that, admittedly, she probably could turn in her favor right now if it was a real fight -, was still not something to be taken lightly. "I just can't believe it, how… how-"

"How much you improved? How far you have come?" Her lips curled up as she talked, her eyes shone with delight.

He just nodded his head before he started to laugh again, causing his head to tilt forward until it was touching her forehead. "It's all thanks to you…"

"Don't give me all the credit."

"You deserve it."

He didn't notice when they had started to whisper, but that was what made him stop and really take in everything about their position.

His breath hitched and his face heated up when he noticed their proximity; he could feel her heartbeat against his chest - he wasn't this close when he finished their match, when did that happen?

His hands moved up from her wrists automatically, when their palms came in contact, he fitted his fingers between hers and she promptly curled them around his hands.

His gaze wandered around her face; her eyes filled with expectation, her cheeks tinted with a bright blush, her quick breaths blending with his, her lips parted and just _so close_.

His mouth felt dry, so instinctively, he ran his tongue through his lips, the fact that she followed the movement with her eyes before unconsciously doing the same almost made every nerve of his body short-circuit.

"Pyrrha…" She looked back up to him when he said her name, her expression full of feelings he was starting to comprehend; he could hear his own heartbeat pounding inside his ears. "… Can I… kiss you?"

A tiny giggle escaped from her mouth before she moved forward just barely, touching lightly her nose with his. "You don't need to ask."

So he didn't waste any more time.

He leaned in, feeling her reciprocate immediately made his mind go blank. His only thought the realization of how much he had wanted to taste her lips again at the same second they touched. So he told himself he was going to savor it.

If their first kiss was rushed and passionate, their second was slow and gentle, and he decided he enjoyed both immensely.

His hands trailed away from hers and searched for her face, his fingers ran lightly through her cheeks, as if he was touching fine crystal, he felt her hum contently against his lips with his caress. He finally brushed that strand of hair behind her ear, his touch looped around it before settling on her cheek once again.

Pyrrha's now free hands started to wander, beginning the trail on his wrists, to his arms, to his shoulders until she slid them lower, sending shivers through every inch of his skin with each touch. Her fist curled against the fabric of his hoodie and somehow she was able to pull him even closer, before her arms moved once again, circling him in a warm embrace.

A happy sigh escaped from him before he parted from her just barely, only for him to get right back to her with another light kiss, then another and another. Each time his lips caught hers felt better than the last.

He felt her soft lips curl up more and more every time he lightly moved away and went back, he then kissed the corner of her smile and that only caused it to grow.

It didn't stop there. He kissed her flushed cheeks, he kissed the tip of her nose, he kissed her forehead, and each one of his feather-light kisses rewarded him with an adorable giggle that didn't fail to make him smile like an idiot.

He went back to her mouth for one last peck. That one being a little clumsy since they were both laughing at that point. But he didn't care, and he had a feeling that neither did she.

Jaune finally put some distance between them, taking the moment to regulate his breathing, their kisses and laughs left him completely breathless. Opening his eyes, he could see that she was in a similar flushed state. He wondered to himself if he could ever get used to the sight before him.

His hands left her face slowly and he placed them by her sides in the wall; he wanted to say so many things to her and now there was nothing to stop him. But the only thing that managed to get out of his mouth was a "Wow…"

 _Poetic._

She chuckled, then touching her forehead to his, she agreed "Wow."

He let out a tiny snort as he shook his head slightly, his face heating up again. "Sorry. I'm not really good at this."

"I thought that you were wonderful!" Pyrrha answered cheerily; his face was now successfully catching on fire.

"A-ah. T-thanks." Jaune looked down embarrassed - he was such a mess. "B-but I-I meant with words."

"Oh!" She let out a small giggle. He looked back up just for her to place a quick peck on his lips. "I think we don't really need them."

He let out a dramatic groan. It looked like his blush was not going to fade anytime soon - by the contrary actually. "You don't even try and you always sound so cool… not fair."

Her shoulders scrunched as she laughed.

"Sorr-"

"Don't!"

The two of them held their breaths before they both simultaneously burst out in giggles.

Their laughter died down one more time. His cheeks were starting to hurt for how much he was smiling. But she made him so happy and giddy, he just couldn't help but feel this way.

She had always caused this kind of wonderful sensations on him, he just wished he had realized sooner.

"Pyrrha…" Jaune sighed. "Can I ask you… for how long? Y-you liked me, I mean."

"Hm…" She tilted her head to the side, thinking. "I'm not quite sure… but it was really early in our first year."

"Wait, really?!" His body straightened up with surprise.

"Well, yes." She laughed at his reaction, then her eyes wandered as she continued, organizing her memories. "Around the first weeks? Month? Maybe close to when we had to go to Forever Falls…"

"First month?!" His voice raised in pitch unintentionally. He moved away from her and leaned to the wall by her side. "But, but I was a jerk to you right before Forever Falls, I talked about Weiss all the time, I couldn't do anything right, I was an idiot!" He covered his face with his hands in embarrassment and slid down the wall a little. He had expected her to have fallen for a _cooler Jaune_ , maybe the one who finally could win a match at combat class or even the one that wore a dress just to fulfill a promise to her.

"Jaun-" She started, probably to tell him that he was wrong.

"Wait! One more question…" He looked up at her, just to see her curiously waiting for his next words. "Yesterday… you said that you knew... how I felt about you… h-how long?"

"Since the Vytal Festival." Her answer came at the same second, surprising him with the lack of hesitation or need of time to think.

"Wait…That means… You knew… even before _I did?!_ " He gave in and slid the rest of the wall to sit on the floor.

"Wait... before?" The confusion was clear in her voice.

"Yeah…" Jaune nodded slowly. "I think I really started to feel… more... for you at the Festival… but it took me a while to admit to myself though."

He ran a hand through his face, still hot from embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

He felt a movement by the corner of his eyes. For one agonizing second, he thought she was leaving. But Pyrrha was still there, now crouching by his side.

She gently placed a hand on his shoulder and took his one that was over his face with the other.

"You asked me for how long. Do you want to know why?"

"Hm?" He tilted his head to the side, then after the one second that he took to realize what she meant, he nodded; somehow, that managed to get a giggle out of her.

"You already know a few reasons…" Pyrrha began, tilting her head in a smile. "When we met you didn't know anything about me, and even after you did… You still treated me like a normal person. Thanks to you, I had friends, a team, I finally felt like I had a place." She shook her head. "You have no idea of how much I needed that."

"When I saw you falling through the Emerald Forest…" She laughed at the memory. "I knew I needed to help you somehow… And I'm so glad I did." She looked down for second before continuing. "We became partners, and I got to know the real you."

"You weren't just a guy who flirted… or at least tried to flirt with girls in the locker room…"

"Hey!" She only rolled her eyes playfully.

"And you weren't just a guy who didn't know what aura was."

"You are so much more than that. You are kind, and brave, and patient and loyal. I know you would do anything for your friends, your team and your family. You want to improve, and you have an admirable ambition. I had never seen someone get up more than they fall down before, but you do… And you're just reaching higher… Just because you want to follow your dreams of helping people."

"I noticed this during our first weeks together. And that, Jaune, is why." He felt his heart skip multiple beats with her words. "But I also noticed that you didn't think that about yourself. I wanted you to know, I wanted to help you…"

"So when those events before Forever Fall happened… I have to admit, I got upset with you, and I even stopped talking to you." Her face morphed into a slight frown. "… But deep down I knew there was something wrong, I knew that wasn't the real you, I knew you were better than that... And I was right. I was so happy, so relieved that I was right."

"Do you remember our first training session that night?" She laughed lightly.

"Yeah." His voice came out raspy, so he cleared his throat. "It was a disaster. We just practiced stances and I lost count of how many times I feel on my butt."

"But you always got up. Always more determined than last time. You never gave up and every time you got one right you were always so happy, you smiled in such a way that lighted up the night." She looked down; he could see a light blush spreading through her face.

"You always thanked me at the end of each training session… saying _I couldn't have done without you_." She squeezed his hand and looked back up at him; her breathtaking smile reached her eyes, which shined with joy. "But I'll tell you, every time you said that all I could think was… how I couldn't have done anything without you either."

As soon as she finished, he finally was able to notice the lump that had formed on his throat, he opened his mouth to speak, but it took him a few tries – and a patient smile from her part - for something actually to come out.

"Pyrrha…" His voice cracked, but now it wasn't because of his teenage-in-growing-phase voice. "I… I don't even know what to say…" He looked down, blinking quickly to get rid of the sudden humidity on his eyes.

"You don't need to say anything." She placed a gentle hand on his cheek. "I just wanted you to know this."

"But I want to!" Jaune shot his head up and looked straight into her eyes. "I have so many things that I want to tell you… And now that you said to me all of this… I feel like I have to at least try!"

Pyrrha must have caught on how much he wanted that because she just smiled and nodded before whispering "Alright..."

"But… Let me just sit first." She winced, making him notice that she had been crouched by his side all that time.

She moved to sit against the wall by his side, just like they had been when they talked at the Vytal Festival. Then she suddenly stopped, before he could ask if there was something wrong, she turned around and, with just one quick motion, sat on his lap. "Much better!"

"Pyrrha!" He jumped in place, startled by her sudden change and choice of position.

"What? I can… sit on my boyfriend's lap, right?" She tilted her head to the side adorably; that and her words made his face catch on fire.

"B-boyfriend?!" He squeaked.

"Well, yes…" She looked down for a moment. "I mean, if you want t-"

"Yes!" He didn't let her finish. His shock had faded and he was now smiling from ear to ear. He circled her waist with his arms and pulled her closer, pressing her side to his chest and running his nose against her cheek. "Of course I want to!"

She laughed along with him with his touch. "It's settled then." She wriggled on his arms, turning around until her back pressed against his chest, she leaned her head back on his shoulder, letting out a pleased sigh. "I always wanted to do this."

He felt his face flush at her words. "And I still can't believe we're doing this." He laughed as he placed his chin on her shoulder.

"Me neither…" He felt her let out a quiet giggle. "But it's happening, isn't it?"

Jaune just hummed an agreement as his hands searched for hers.

He felt his body relax, as in truly relax. He lost himself to the sensation of having her on his arms, of her fingers tracing soothing circles on his hands, of the scent of her hair, of the warmth of her body against his… everything was somehow so _right_.

He had never felt so content before, and he wanted her to know that.

"Pyrrha…" He breathed out her name on her bare shoulder; he couldn't help but smile when he felt her breath hitch because of that. "I know that I'll probably not be as good as you when saying things… But there's, like, two things I need to say to you."

She squeezed his hand and hummed lightly, and he took that as an incentive to keep going.

"The first is… thank you. I know that I have said that I couldn't have done without you a bunch of times… But I really meant it every single one." He let out a chuckle. "Without you… I would probably be some pile of broken bones from the day they launched us off that cliff. So thank you for believing in me." His hand scratched the back of his neck by force of habit. "And for saving my butt." She giggled but didn't say anything else, waiting for him to finish.

He let go of a breath before resuming. "The second is… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being dumb in our first year, I'm sorry for taking so long to notice what was right in front of me and for taking so long to admit to myself. I'm sorry for making you wait." He buried his forehead on her shoulder, hiding his blush. "I can't believe you liked me for almost a year now."

"Just… I'm sorry… for taking so long."

Pyrrha was quiet when he finished, but soon he felt her stir, so he lifted up his head from her shoulder.

She moved on his lap and turned around completely until she was facing him.

"Jaune…" She placed a hand lightly on his cheek, guiding his gaze upwards until their eyes met, where he found the gentlest expression on her face. "It's okay. I… actually didn't mind waiting. I felt like you were going to figure it out someday. And you did!" She beamed at him.

"I'll admit that I got a little confused because I noticed that things had changed, but at the same time… they hadn't." She looked down embarrassed. "So I may have gotten a bit… impatient." He blushed when he realized she was referring to the events of the day before.

"But I could have said something earlier too, and more _calmly_." Pyrrha let out a quiet laugh. "I guess we are _both_ really difficult when dealing with this kind of stuff."

He blinked, then wasn't able to suppress a snort from escaping. "Oh, man... I guess we are, huh?"

She laughed, and he had to close his eyes to avoid the strands of their hair from falling into his eyes when she leaned her forehead on his.

When their laughter finally subsided, she continued. "But I'll say it was worth the wait…" He opened his eyes, and the soft smile she was giving him made his heart skip a beat. "After all, we are here now, aren't we?"

"Better late than never?" He whispered after a chuckle, unable to divert his gaze from hers.

She giggled. "Hmhm. And…" He felt her hands wandering to his shoulders, feeling him with goosebumps. "We can make up for the lost time…"

"We can…" His lips brushed the corner of hers with his words; he hadn't even realized that they had gotten so close.

So, for their lips to meet, he hadn't to make a lot of effort. Her touch filled his body immediately with the amazing sensation of thousands of butterflies on his stomach and electricity running through his nerves.

Her hands found their way to his hair at the same second, her fingers buried in the locks on his nape, pulling him closer to her to deepen the kiss and sending shivers through his spine.

His hands traveled down her arms gently, tracing random patterns on her skin, then his arms soon found their place, circling her waist, he loved how right it felt.

Pyrrha was serious about making up for the lost time, because she wasted none when she nibbled on his lip, asking for an opening. And Jaune wasted no time in doing what she requested.

They parted for air eventually, but, for his wonderful surprise, she didn't stop. He had just recovered some of his breath from their kiss, but he was losing it all over again, as he found himself receiving a trail of kisses to his chin, to his jawline and finally to his neck.

Suddenly it was like his whole body was burning. He could only gasp when her lips touched a sensitive spot; she just chuckled against his skin at the sound, getting him to lean his head back against the wall reflexively to give her a better access. "Ah… P-Pyrrha?"

"Oh. I'm sorry..." Her lips left his skin; the small distance was almost painful. "Should I stop?" The breath of her words tickling him in a way that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, filling his nerves with anticipation for her touch.

"N-no!" Jaune answered a bit too loud, he had to admit to himself that that was the last thing he wanted her to do, so after taking a deep breath he tried again. "Don't… I-I like it."

She laughed, making his chest flutter. "Okay then."

Another kiss was soon placed in the same place that made him gasp before, making his whole body jump. Then another followed it, but this one felt different, longer, and firmer and he could swear he felt her teeth scraping against his skin, causing a groan to escape from his mouth before he could even stop it. Then she moved in a trail back to his lips once again, her warm breath and light kisses tickling his sensitive skin and sending shock waves through his body all the way, where she placed one last deep, short kiss before stopping, resting her forehead on his.

"Pyrrha…" Ragged breaths cut his sentence - after he remembered how to formulate them that's it. "That… was amazing!"

Jaune heard her laugh quietly in response as she caressed his nose with hers, and he finally opened his eyes, staring at her own. Her expression was full of expectation once again, and he congratulated himself for understanding immediately what she would want. That was an opening he was more than eager to take.

"My turn." He kissed her again and he felt her smile against his mouth, but this kiss was relatively short compared to their other ones, because soon his lips left hers and were wandering her skin, following a similar path that she had taken with him before.

He automatically let out a small whimper when he felt his touches being halted by hitting something cold and smooth, realizing that the neckpiece or her armor was on the way of his advances.

"Oh, sorry." She moved one hand from his shoulder to the back of her neck, where she unclasped the golden piece easily. Placing it on the floor next to them, she giggled. "Better now?"

He could just nod, his eyes only focused on her newly exposed skin before he promptly resumed his task.

He ran his nose lightly along her neck, the scent of metal impregnated in it mixed extremely well with her perfume. He continued his stroke until he arrived at a spot that made her body shudder and her hands to curl up against his hair, then he started to place light kisses around, feeling her breaths coming out in short gasps. He was more than surprised when those gasps quickly morphed into a fit of giggles.

"You're ticklish!" He beamed at his new discovery. _Who would have thought…?_ He brushed his nose against the spot that caused her reaction, only for his ears to be filled with a joyful laugh. "Is this why you wear that armor?" He joked between his kisses.

"Jau-ne!" His name came out of her mouth split by loud giggles.

"Okay, okay…" He laughed, and placed one last kiss to that spot, causing her back to straighten and for a mix of a snort and a gasp to escape from her mouth, before he started wandering once again, feeling her body relax.

He found his next stop in a place under her ear when, after just a light brush, he heard her let out a small involuntary moan, the noise made his whole face red in seconds. Guess he now had a new favorite sound.

Actually, he loved every little sound that came out of her; her giggles, her gasps, her sighs, her snorts, her laugh, and he loved even more that he was the one getting these reactions out of her.

He pulled her closer for him to reach the spot better, bending his knees up until she slid on his lap closer to his chest, causing their bodies to be even closer than before.

He moved up from his new spot to nibble on her ear, getting another cute gasp out of her before he trailed back to her mouth. She reciprocated happily, and after a while of making up for how short his previous kiss was, he finally allowed himself to stop because of the necessity to breathe.

She seemed in need of air just as much as he was. So he just decided to enjoy her proximity for a moment, resting his head on hers while they both recovered their breaths.

He watched her close her eyes contently before he did the same. His hands wandered up on her back until he found a lock of her hair, finally being able to confirm his suspicions: it felt even better against his fingers than he imagined.

"You know…" Pyrrha chuckled lightly after a few seconds of silence and of his fingers traveling through her locks as he played with her ponytail. "We really should be training…"

"Nooo…" Jaune buried his head on her shoulder; his hands left her hair to hug her tight. "Haven't you kicked my butt enough for today?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "That's why I was going to say… that maybe we could take this day off?"

He perked up. "Can we?"

"Of course!" She hugged him back. "We can just stay here just enjoying the morning if you want."

"I would like that." He nuzzled her neck, feeling her shiver at his touch. Then he felt his face heating up before he decided to ask. "But… hm, can we… can we also do what we were doing before? I-if… and when! ...You want to, of course!"

"Oh! Absolutely." She placed a kiss on his cheek and just by that, he felt as if he could melt. "I would like that." She repeated his words between a quiet laugh.

"O-oh. Yeah, okay then." Even with her agreement, he didn't move from their position. She scooted closer to lay her head on his shoulder, her fingers idly picking on some strands of his hair, just enjoying their embrace.

He let out a content sigh to her soft caress as he traced circles on her back. He couldn't find words to express how much he loved having her this close, how much he loved her hugs, how much he loved her kisses, how much he loved her laugh, how much he loved _her_ …

 _Oh…_

Yeah, actually, those three words sounded more than right.

"Jaune?"

"Hm?"

"Are you okay?" She raised from his shoulder. "Your heartbeat… it sped up so suddenly."

"Ah! I-I'm fine, Pyr…" He didn't know where the nickname came from, but when he saw her blush after he said it, he guessed she liked it. "I'm just… really happy." He laughed and shook his head. "Oh man… I have a girlfriend! And it's you!"

She joined his laughs. "Is it that hard to believe?"

"Not anymore." He placed a kiss on the tip of her nose, watching her blush spread through her cheeks.

Really, he could stay the rest of the day at the roof with her, not worrying about homework, or upcoming tests, or the rush of the beginning of their second year in Beacon.

He suddenly stopped as a realization struck.

"Hey, Pyr... Do you want to stay here…? Or do you want to go somewhere else? It's the first weekend of the school year… and the first year's students are probably going to be exploring around the building soon…" He gesticulated with his hands as he talked. "Some of them are probably going to end up here…"

"Oh. You're right." She looked to the doors, as if a pack of curious new people would suddenly burst in. "We could go find somewhere else… but as you said, it's going to be hard with all the new students around."

She went quiet for a second before he saw her eyes widening with realization. "Or… I could try something…" She whispered almost solely to herself.

"Like what?" Jaune just tilted his head in confusion.

She shook her head. "It would probably keep people out… but I don't know if I should…"

"Now you made me curious! What is it?" His excitement was clear on his voice to motivate her to reveal her idea.

She looked at the door, then to him, then to the door again, before finally letting out a sigh and making up her mind. "One second." She shifted on his lap, turning to the direction of the doors. She raised one hand, which surrounded itself in the familiar black glow of her semblance; her face became the definition of concentration as she executed her plan… whatever it was.

Then, after a few seconds, he heard a light click coming from the door, she lowered her hand and he finally understood what she had done.

"You… can pick up on locks?!" He asked in awe.

"Apparently…" Her shoulders shrunk. "Do you think it is okay?"

He laughed. "For me it is! That certainly solved our problem." He turned to her. "And, not gonna lie, it's actually pretty cool!"

"You're probably thinking this is like one of those spy movies that you like." Jaune saw in her smile that she knew she was right.

"Yeah, you're still cooler though!"

"Oh! Why, thank you!" Now it was her turn to laugh, in that contagious way where she raised one hand to her face to hide her blush, and he couldn't help his smile from growing at the sight.

When it subsided, he only noticed that he was staring at her for a few seconds now – probably with a really sappy expression on his face, he had to admit - when she looked down for a quick second, embarrassedly breaking their eye contact.

She looked back up soon after though, and when she did - with that cute smile, eyes shining and rosy cheeks -, he felt his pulse quickening, heart climb up to his throat; it was incredible how she made all of his senses go crazy with just one look.

He lost himself into this sensation, something in the back of his mind strongly declared to him that it was the right moment and didn't notice his next words coming out, with them doing so in only one breath, until he had finished whispering them.

"I love you."

Even though he hadn't planned to say them at that moment, the sentence flowed naturally, he didn't regret it one bit. After all, it was the purest truth, he had no motives to hide it, and it had never felt so right - also there was the childish feeling of pride for being the first one of them to say it.

She gasped; her eyes widened as she raised a hand to her mouth, he had never seen before her cheeks get so red. He watched her blink her eyes quickly and her smile growing before she threw her arms around him, pulling him close. "I love you too."

Her immediate reply filled him with such incredible happiness, and before he knew, her hands were on his face and she was kissing him - only making the situation indescribably better -, and so passionately that his head met the wall when she pressed her lips to his.

They both had huge silly smiles on their faces, and that caused their teeth to knock together clumsily at first, But he didn't care, it still felt amazingly perfect and he never felt so happy.

Then, he heard a loud bang, brusquely shattering the moment. Before he could even open his eyes, the floor shook, and the tremor was immediately followed by the painfully loud sound of an explosion.

For one terrifying second, he thought that this was it. He had dreamed all of the past days, his happiness just being a product of his needy mind, and he was waking up by falling from his bed after Nora decided to _test_ new grenades at their dorm - it wouldn't be the first time.

But Pyrrha and he were still clinging to each other, she had buried her face into his shoulder, shielding herself from the explosion that came from the door.

Jaune almost took a breath of relief, but when he peeked at the direction of the noise, relief was the last thing he felt. Pyrrha also raised her head right after, and he could feel her tensing on his arms.

There stood Professor Goodwitch, debris of what was once the doors surrounded her, wand in hand menacingly, posture firm and stare as cold as ice.

She pressed a finger on the middle of her glasses, pushing it up on the bridge of her nose to her eyes, before asking, so calmly and collected, that freaked him out.

"What is… the meaning of this?"

* * *

So apparently picking up locks is not something everyone thought it was cool.

Especially Beacon's locks, which some of them were supposed to only open and close with the use of especial employee-only cards.

 _Especially_ if doing that with a semblance that transmitted magnetic pulses that somehow managed to make the lock system go crazy.

So when the teacher received a notification on her scroll saying that the roof door was locked by mysterious means that caused the system to mess up, she could only assume that the school was being infiltrated by some criminals with some advanced technology.

That… was a little less cool.

Instead, she only found two of her own students, in a very compromising situation.

So, yeah, it was _really_ embarrassing, and Jaune could only think that they were in big trouble.

Still, for his relief and delightful surprise, it wasn't _that bad_. He could bet that it was because Pyrrha was quick to cover the Professor with a ridiculously amount of "I'm sorry's!" though; and because Goodwitch had somewhat of a soft spot for his partner, since she was the top student of her class since forever and all.

And seriously, everyone - even the teachers – knew well that Pyrrha wouldn't do something that was considered bad intentionally.

That resulted in them getting out of the situation with just a warning. Still, that didn't make the situation any less embarrassing and mortifying - especially when they were caught doing what they were doing… and by a teacher to top it off. A lecture from Professor Goodwitch was still something that made you regret things that you haven't thought about doing yet.

So now, they were both walking, or jogging, or half-running, nervously through the dorm's building halls, ears burning because of embarrassment and for having them filled with the Professor's repressing words.

"I think I'll never be able to go to her class with a straight face again." Jaune shuddered just by remembering the piercing glares that he received.

"Neither will I." Pyrrha groaned as she covered her blushing face with her hands. "I'm so, so sorry."

"You don't need to apologize… there was no way we could have known that would happen." He reassured her. "And I think the Professor knew you wouldn't do something like that on purpose."

"You think so?" She removed her hands from her face.

"Yeah! Of course." He fidgeted with his hands nervously. "But she doesn't like me though; I thought she was going to throw me off the roof! I seriously bet that she thinks that I'm a bad influence for you or something like that."

She laughed. "Well, I can tell you that the last thing you are to me is a bad influence."

He felt his face heating up, but before he could open his mouth to answer - with what would probably be a really smooth line, but guess the world will never know - Jaune heard the dreaded sound of a set of heels coming from the hallway behind them.

It was as if the air got a hundred degrees colder as a chill went through his spine. "Dust! She already fixed the door! She's coming." He whispered and shouted at the same time.

Pyrrha glanced back, looking more like a deer caught in headlights, before she quickened her pace. "Let's go! I'm not exactly... eager to see her again so soon." She replied in the same tone.

In a blink of an eye, Pyrrha had already rounded the corner for the next corridor, so he had to jog to catch up to her, and before they knew they were running through the halls, yearning more than never the safety of their dorm room.

Their shoulders bumped and he almost tripped when they sharply rounded a corner, causing him to let out a snort that he hadn't even noticed that he was holding, Pyrrha made a sloppy motion for him to keep quiet, but she herself was unable to contain her own giggles from escaping as they ran.

They got some weird looks from two or three students that had the misfortune of being in their path, and the Professor was probably not even going to follow the same route through the corridors as them. Still, he didn't consider stopping not even for one second, and by the way his partner was running, neither did she.

They finally arrived at their door and he had never unlocked it so fast before. They both rushed to get in as quick as possible, and once they were safe inside, he slammed the door shut as fast as he could.

Jaune leaned heavily against the door and Pyrrha did the same while letting out a loud sigh of relief, he could feel his heart beating on his ears with the adrenaline of their escapade.

"Hey guys, what's the rush? You're back early!" Nora's voice was what made him notice that the other half of the team was in the room, both sitting on the floor surrounded by cleaning products, dust vials and loose parts of their weapons as they inspected and cleaned of them like they did every weekend.

Nora finally raised her head to look directly at them, and he saw her lift an eyebrow in the most comical way. "What happened with you guys?"

Even Ren seemed curious. Jaune opened his mouth to speak but his heavy breathing prevented from any coherent sentence to come out at all. He then exchanged a glance with Pyrrha, then sent another one to their teammates on the floor, then went back to Pyrrha before he couldn't hold it anymore.

He burst out laughing; Jaune heard a snort coming out from his partner before she joined him, covering her face once again with her hands.

He saw through his tear-filled eyes Nora and Ren exchanging their own glances before the girl asked. "Guuuys! What's so funny?" She got up to confront them fully. "And why you both look like a mess? Usually, it's just Jaune that gets beaten up."

"H-hey!" He managed to stutter between his laughing fit. "A-and you would n-never guess-"

"Wait!" Nora shouted, before she got closer to both of them, she placed a hand on her chin and squinted her eyes, her gaze running over them like she was a detective analyzing an intricate crime scene, taking in every single detail. Her sudden piercing stare made him press his back even harder against the door and feel really self-conscious. "I think I _can_ guess…"

Jaune exchanged one more nervous look with Pyrrha, finally noticing that it actually wouldn't be hard for Nora to actually guess it right. Her lipstick was gone, but her lips were still pink, she had yet to put back the neckpiece of her armor and her ponytail was a little crooked from when he was running his fingers through it. And of course, there was a really obvious - and cute - blush on her face.

He could only imagine that he was in a similar state as her, he felt that his entire face was hot, his hair was probably a complete mess and when Nora's judgmental gaze stopped suddenly on his neck, he remembered little detail that would give everything away.

"I-I can't believe it…" He had never heard their hyperactive teammate sound so quiet. "Ren this is happening!" And the quiet was gone.

"Wait, what's happening?"

Nora pointed a finger at the evident clue she had spotted. "Is that a hickey?!"

"Ahn…"

"HA!" She soon pointed a finger at his partner, her voice only getting louder. "Pyrrha, did you do that to him?!"

"Ahn…" He saw Pyrrha looking down in embarrassment, and then he knew what words were coming. "I'm sorry?"

Nora's mouth shaped into a perfect circle when she got her confirmation, then a scream slowly began to scape, only getting louder and louder being even possible to be heard from outside, getting even Zwei to bark from team RWBY's room from the other side of the corridor.

"Nora, please!" Jaune flinched at her noise, covering his ears.

"HA! I knew it wasn't going to take much longer for you two to stop being such stupid faces!" She jumped in place.

"Hey!"

"Wait! Since how long is this happening?!"

"Ahn-"

"Pyrrha! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Sorr-"

"Actually, don't worry about it! You can tell me _everything_ later!"

"Everythi-"

"Or you can tell me now! Just don't leave details out!" Nora was pretty much vibrating with expectation.

"Nora, slow down." Ren's voice came from the other side of the room, but if his tone was any indication, he seemed to think that the situation was quite amusing. "You're overwhelming them."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" She took a deep breath. "You don't need to tell me _everything_ if you don't want to. Just the best parts!"

"Ah-"

"HA! And now team RWBY owns me some money!"

"They what?!"

"Oh! Don't worry about it!" She waved her hands, and then she suddenly gasped dramatically. "Wait! I need to know who made the first move for me to get my money!"

Noticing that Nora was not going to slow down anytime soon and deciding to ignore for now the fact that their friends had apparently bet not even _if_ , but _how_ he and Pyrrha would get together, he decided to take an action. Thinking fast and chancing a glance to Pyrrha, he was able to get across a message.

"So… hm, it was good seeing you guys for a sec, but we just came to tell you that… there was, like, ahn… an accident with a door and stuff…" His hands wandered behind his back until he found the doorknob as he blurted out the first excuse he thought of. "Crazy stuff!"

Pyrrha nodded and clapped her hands together as she played along. "Yes! And now we kind of have to go… deal with this problem! You know... face our responsibilities!"

Jaune opened the door. "So, yeah! Unfortunately, need to go!" He grabbed Pyrrha by the hand before he even registered. "Let's go, Pyr."

"Bye!" She waved cheerfully to the other half of the team as they left.

"Have fun!" He heard Ren shout as they closed the door, making his face go red.

"Wait! You already have nicknames?!" Nora shouted as the door slammed shut. "Ren! They. Have. _Nicknames!_ And they were _holding hands!_ Isn't it cute?!" Her words were heard loud and clearly even after they rounded the corner.

Jaune was finally able to let go of a breath then and it soon morphed into a chuckle. "I thought she was not going to stop."

Pyrrha shook her head as she laughed. "That's Nora for you."

They walked for a bit in silence. A silly smile still plastered on his face because of the last series of events. And because Pyrrha was still holding his hand. It felt almost surreal, after months of only the awkward touch of the backs of their hands brushing as they walked, to be finally doing the real thing.

He unconsciously swayed their joined hands back and forth as he realized that they had no plans for the rest of their morning because of the interruption of their _training_.

"So…" He began hesitantly after an idea popped on his head. "Now that we really can't go back to the room right now… and I don't really want to risk running into the Professor anytime soon… Do you… want to go down to Vale? Like, to get some lunch or something?"

His girlfriend turned her head to him, and once again, with just one look and smile, she made his heart invent some new acrobatics and his face a new shade of red.

Their almost nonexistent height difference allowed Pyrrha to place a quick peck on his lips easily while she moved her hand to interlace their finger together. "That sounds grand!"

Jaune knew that words weren't going to able to convey his happiness at that moment, feeling that something entirely new in his life was just beginning.

So he just tilted his head in a smile. And then they left.

Together.

* * *

 **Thank you so, so much for reading! I was really excited to share this chapter with you guys, so I hope it was worth the wait and that you liked the conclusion of this fic! If you did, leave a fave, if you already did that, leave a review telling me your thoughts! It would mean the world to me! ^^**

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